Swanborough Tump is a mound of earth in

Manningford Manningford is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the villages of Manningford Abbots, Manningford Bohune and Manningford Bruce, and the hamlet of Manningford Bohune Common, together known as the Manningfords. The parish is ...

parish, Wiltshire, England. It has been considered to be a

bowl barrow A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''ke ...

dating from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

and is listed as a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The mound was the meeting place of the ancient

Swanborough Hundred Swanborough was a hundred of the English county of Wiltshire, mostly lying in the centre of the county to the south of the town of Devizes. An area of the hundred reached several miles southwards into Salisbury Plain. The hundred contained the par ...

and has been linked with the "Swanabeorh" of a 987 AD Saxon charter titled 'Barrow of the peasants'. Although recorded by

Leslie Grinsell Leslie Valentine Grinsell (14 February 1907 – 28 February 1995) was an English archaeologist and museum curator. Publishing over twenty books on archaeology during his lifetime, he was renowned as a specialist on the prehistoric barrow ...

as a bowl barrow, the structure is untypical of a prehistoric burial mound and may instead have been built as a meeting-place during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. This location is also significant as it was chosen in A.D. 871 as the meeting place for King Aethelred and his brother, the future

King Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, Æthelwulf and his ...

on their way to fight the Danes. They promised each other that if one of them should die then the dead man's children would inherit land belonging to their father King Aethelwulf. A stone monument and plaque at the site commemorate this event.

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Wiltshire Archaeological sites in Wiltshire Barrows in England Stone Age sites in Wiltshire Scheduled monuments in Wiltshire