"Swaffham Pillar" Angel

"Swaffham Pillar" Detail
© Godric Godricson

"Swaffham Pillar" Detail

"Swaffham Pillar" Detail
© Godric Godricson

Magalithic Monuments

Cemetery Dereliction /
Cemetery management @ Swaffham Parish Church

"Among the megalithic monuments of our islands the chambered barrows hold an important place. It is well known that in the neolithic period the dead in certain parts of England were buried under mounds of not circular but elongated shape. These graves are commonest in Wiltshire and the surrounding counties of Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire. A few exist in other counties. Some contain no chamber, while others contain a structure of the megalithic type. It is with these latter that we have here to deal. Chambered long barrows are most frequent in Wiltshire, though they do occur in other counties, as, for example, Buckinghamshire, where the famous Cave of Wayland the Smith is certainly the remains of a barrow of this kind. In Derbyshire and Staffordshire a type of chambered mound does occur, but it seems uncertain from the description given whether it is round or elongated".

Title: Rough Stone Monuments and Their Builders

Author: T. Eric Peet (1912)

Swaffham

The serene beauty of Swaffham
© Godric Godricson

'Deviant Burial'

"It is believed to be a 'deviant burial', where people considered the 'dangerous dead', such as vampires, were interred to prevent them rising from their graves to plague the living. "

For the full story in "The Telegraph" [ Link ]