Cheetham Close is a

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

ic site and

scheduled ancient 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 ...

located in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, very close to the boundary with

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England. The megalith was in good condition until a farmer from Turton sledgehammered the circle in the 1870s. According to an article published in 1829, Cheetham Close was once a

druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

ical ritual place and a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

passed 'within two hundred yards' of the megalith. The stone circle at Cheetham Close measured about in diameter. Six stones are definitely part of the circle and other smaller stones are scattered about the place. The monument has been damaged, and the stones fractured.

Archaeological surveys

The area was surveyed in 1850 by Dryden, who identified a circle of six stones. In 1871 Greenhalgh identified a seventh stone and drew attention to the destruction of the site. In 1894 French discovered a second site which was a "ring bank" type

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

. A saddle

quern Quern ( da, Kværn) is a former municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populo ...

was found in 1954 and the site was scheduled in 1958. Three

barb Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to: People * Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves * The Barbs, a band Places * Barb, ...

ed and tanged

arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

s were found at a third site in 1959. In 1983 a large-scale survey was undertaken by the Bury Archaeological Group and M. Fletcher. The stone circle was in a severely damaged state, with only two of the seven megaliths still in situ. The site probably originally contained ten equally spaced gritstone slabs. The

ring cairn A ring cairn (also correctly termed a ring bank enclosure, but sometimes wrongly described as a ring barrow) is a circular or slightly oval, ring-shaped, low (maximum 0.5 metres high) embankment, several metres wide and from 8 to 20 metres in ...

lies to the south of the stone circle. Fletcher suggests that Cheetham Close dates from an early period between 2100 and 1500 BC in the Early

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 ...

. The quern and arrowheads suggest the settlers were a pastoral community who supplemented their diet by hunting.

References

External links

The Megalith Portal entry on Cheetham Close
{{Stone Circles of Ireland, Britain, and Brittany Buildings and structures in Blackburn with Darwen History of Lancashire Archaeological sites in Lancashire Scheduled monuments in Lancashire Stone circles in England

Archaeological surveys

See also

References

External links