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The
town of Amble, which is distant from Warkworth about a mile and a half,
stands upon a terrace with a bow-shaped outline, and when seen from the
north or north-west, especially if the estuary of the Coquet is filled
with water at high or spring tides, has a more than ordinarily
attractive appearance. The sky-line is broken by the public buildings
and the belfries of church and chapel, while the eastern end of the town
is occupied by the harbour with its lofty coal staithes and abundant
shipping. The township contains the hamlets and homesteads of New-hall,
Moor-house, the Hope, and Link-house, and comprises an area of 1,218
acres.
N There is a place of the same name in Norway, and as a
component part of a word it occurs in Ambleside in the county of
Westmorland, in Ambleston near Milford Haven, and Amblecote in
Staffordshire.
The prosperity of Amble and its existence as a seaport
town depend exclusively upon an extensive export of coal obtained from
the adjacent collieries at Radcliffe and Broomhill. To this trade is
owing the rapid increase of the population, which in 1821 did not exceed
200, and in 1891 was 2,975.
N
Though no camps or earthworks have survived the action
of the plough, a prehistoric burial ground exists on the links from
which rich results have been obtained. In the operations required to lay
bare the rock and to extend the quarry there, no less than forty graves
have been unearthed and probably many still remain unopened. Though
bones and urns are said to have been discovered at an earlier period,
the first recorded find was in the month of April, 1857, when a gale of
wind laid bare a long upright stone near the end of the pier, which had
beside it a slab forming the covering of a cist constructed in the usual
fashion of four slabs of sandstone set edgewise in a cavity dug out of
the friable shale which over- lies the harder rock. The cist, which had
a direction south-east by north-west, measured 1 foot 6 inches in depth,
2 feet 2 inches in width, 4 feet in length at the bottom, and 3 feet 4
inches at the top. It contained a perfect skeleton, lying on its left
side, having the knees drawn up and the right arm thrown back, with the
head to the south-west ; the skull is said to have been very low in the
frontal region, but with great development of the occipital portion and
with the lower jaw of unusual width and length, the teeth were regular
and sound, only one was missing ; the thigh bone measured 1 foot 72
inches. The bottom of the cist was covered to the depth of about half an
inch with dark unctuous mould.
N By the side of the skeleton stood a vessel of the `drinking
cup' type, which measures 8 inches in height, 74 inches in depth, and 52
inches in diameter ; it is ornamented in zig-zag scoring alternating
with dotted lines and upright or slanting scorings continued over the
edge of the rim.
N
But it was in 1883 that the quarry (which is situated half a
mile south of the spot where the cist was found in 1857) yielded
prolific results ; they have been described in papers read before the
Society of Antiquaries of London by the Rev. William Greenwell :
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It consisted of a cairn, made of cobble stones from the
neighbouring sea-beach, placed upon a thin layer of
vegetable mould with clayey soil beneath, overlying the
rock. The cairn had been about 40 feet in diameter and 5
feet high. It was situated on the low bank there bounding
the sea-beach, about 70 yards from its edge, and was
entirely concealed under a deposit of blown sand, 9 feet
thick, and therefore rising 4 feet above the top of the
cairn.
Though when discovered it was but a short distance from
the sea, it is evident that when first erected it must have
been much further distant, so far indeed as to be beyond the
limit of sand blown from the beach. That this must have been
the case appears to be proved by the fact that, whereas when
discovered the cairn was buried like the adjoining ground
under many feet of sand, it had been, when first thrown up,
placed upon the ordinary surface mould which had no sand
upon it, and, therefore, must have been beyond the range to
which sand blown from the seashore extended.
It had contained, so far as I could ascertain, about twenty
cists of the usual kind and several deposits of burnt bones,
an unusually large number of interments in one sepulchral
mound. There were also seven vessels of pottery, one of
which I found myself. |
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I will now proceed to describe the cairn and its
contents as I found it at the time of my visit, when, though
the greater part had been destroyed during the work of
quarrying, a portion was still left undisturbed, and when
some of the cists, though they had been opened, had not
been removed. What I think, must have been the central and
primary interment had been contained in a cist sunk to a
depth of 2 feet 4 inches through the surface soil, broken
stone, locally called 'rab,' and solid rock. It had a
direction west by south and east by north, and was 3 feet 7
inches long, 1i foot 11 inches wide, and 1 foot 10 inches
deep, being formed of four side stones and a cover. The
interment was of an unburnt body, the head of which had been
placed at the east end. The bones were too much decayed to
enable any further account of their position being given. In
the cist were also a small bronze knife, now in the British
Museum, and a ` food-vessel.' This, which has three
perforated ears, is 3 7/8 inches high, and 1 foot 4 inches in
circumference at the widest part. It is covered over the
whole surface, including the inside of the lip of the rim,
with a herring-hone pattern. The knife, which has been much
reduced in size by use and whetting, is 1 3/8 inches long
and 1 1/8 inches wide, and has three rivets still remaining,
by which it was attached to the handle. There was also in
the cist a small piece of flint, now lost, but which, from
the description given me by the man who found it, appeared
to have been flaked into shape. Upon the cover of the cist,
which was found broken through the middle, was a deposit of
burnt bones overlaid at a height of 6 inches by a slab of
sandstone larger than the cover stone of the cist, and
placed at the level of the original surface. Just beyond the
east end of this cist was a small and rather irregularly
shaped one, having one side about 1 foot 4 inches long, the
other being about 1 foot ; the two ends were closed each by
a single stone. It was covered by cobble stones, and
contained the much decayed bones of a child. Three feet to
the south-west of the first cist, and 1 foot 3 inches above
the original surface of the ground, was a deposit of burnt
bones, those of an adult, laid in a round heap, about to
inches in diameter. Six feet south-south-west from the same
cist was a smaller one, lying east and west, 2 feet long, t
foot 2 inches wide, and 1 foot deep. It was made of four
side stones and a cover, and was placed on the top of the
broken rock underlying the surface soil. There were, when I
saw it, some burnt bones lying about it, evidently not in
their original place of deposit, from which I am inclined to
believe it had contained a burial after cremation. I could,
however, obtain no distinct account from the workmen, except
that there was a `pot' in it. This vessel, which has been
given to the British Museum, is 5 3/8 inches high, 4 3/8
inches wide at the top, and 3 1/4 inches at the bottom. It
is coarsely made, and in shape is something like a
cinerary urn. On the inside of the lip of the rim is a band
of diagonal lines, and on the upper part of the vessel, for
a space of 2 1/2 inches, a herring-bone pattern of five
rows, the remaining part of the vessel being plain. All the
lines have been made by a sharp-pointed instrument. |
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AMBLE
'DRINKING CUP' |
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To the east of the cist just described had been two others,
both destroyed before my visit, but which the workmen told
me were similar in form and construction to those still
remaining, and each containing a `pot.' These, now in the
possession of Mr. G. H. Thompson of Alnwick, are
`food-vessels.' One, which is rather roughly made, is 1 foot
3 7/8 inches high, 15 3/4 inches in circumference at the
widest part, and is ornamented on the upper part with a band
of vertical lines, between one band above and two beneath of
inclining lines; the lower part has lines irregularly
crossing each other and forming no definite pattern. The
other, which is better made and ornamented, is 4 3/4 inches
high and 1 foot 6 inches in circumference at the widest
part. The upper part has nine lines encircling it, beneath
which are three bands of vertical lines, the middle one
being placed between three encircling lines above and three
beneath. All the lines are made by impressions of twisted
thong. 'Thirteen feet south-south-west from the cist first
described was one, the bottom of which was at the same level
as the cover of the first. It had a direction west by north
and east by south, and was 2 feet 6 inches long, 1 foot 3
inches wide, and the same deep. The workmen had no
recollection of any bones, but there was a `pot' in it. Six
feet north of the first cist, and 1 foot 6 inches higher
than the stone which covered the deposit of burnt bones
lying on the cist cover, was a `food-vessel,' now in the
British Museum, which almost touched the south-east corner
of another cist, the bottom of which was formed by the
surface soil. It was north-east and south-west, 3 feet 10
inches long, 1 foot 8 inches wide, and 1 foot 10 inches
deep, being made of four side stones and a cover, and having
the joints filled in with clay. It contained the much
decayed bones of an adult, of which sufficient remained to
show that the body had been laid on the left side with the
head to the east. On the bottom of the cist was some
charcoal, an invariable accompaniment of an interment by
inhumation. Close by the ` food-vessel' were some teeth just
traceable, and a little further away were remains of bones
in the same decayed condition, all indicative of the
interment of an unburnt body, with which the vessel had
almost certainly been associated. It is 5 1/2, inches high,
4 3/4 inches wide at the top, and 2 1/2 inches wide at the
bottom. The inside of the lip has a herring-bone pattern
upon it. The outside has a hand of diagonal lines with four
encircling lines beneath; then follows, for a space of 3
inches, a herring-bone pattern, having beneath three
encircling lines; the remaining space of inch is plain. All
the lines have been made by a sharp-pointed tool.
N |
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| Bronze Knife |
Cist Vessel |
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The above-mentioned graves were placed on the clay or natural
rock, but another grave which had a direction north and south had the
bottom formed of flat stones ; it measured 4 feet in length, 2 feet in
height, and 2 feet 6 inches in breadth. Embedded in the sand, which had
drifted into it, was an urn standing at the north end, but in an
inverted position ; it measures 6 inches in height, 1 foot 8 inches in
circumference, and 5 inches in diameter inside the mouth ; the lip,
which is 3/4 inch broad, has a single cable twist line in the middle ;
the neck has a zig-zag ornamentation, but the lower portion of the cup
is perfectly plain and glossy, having apparently been smoothed over with
some hard instrument. No large, but some small pieces of bone were
found.
N
Ten years later, in an extension of the quarry about 60 yards
distant from the site of those above described, there was found a cist 4
feet 6 inches . long and 2 feet 6 inches broad, in which there were
portions of the leg bones of its former occupant, and an urn of tasteful
design but rude workmanship, measuring 7 1/4 inches in height and 5 1/4
inches across the mouth. About the same period there was found another
urn broken and destroyed in taking it from the grave, a portion of a
brachycephalic skull, and a flint flake, probably a knife, which
measures 3 3/4 inches in length by 5 1/4 inches in breadth.
N
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