[Centred NY 7044 6594] Tumuli [O.E] [Ten shown]. (1)

Scheduled. (2)

Centred NY 70426595 Remains of 8 tumuli, varying in diameter from 3m to 8m, and in height from 0.2 to 0.8m. All have a surrounding ditch, or show traces of a ditch. All have an outer bank 1m to 2m wide, and 0.1 to 0.5m in height. Many bear evidence of having been dug into from the side. All are turf covered. None show retaining circles of stone. At least two, probably all, are constructed of earth and small stones. Five tumuli centred at NY 70476595 (See Auth 1) have been ploughed out, and no trace remains. See GPs AO/56/363/2 and 3. (3)

Correctly described. Resurveyed at 1/2500. (4)

See RR 85a, Stanegate, km NY 7065 for survey.
Other circular and rectangular features visible immediately to the east. (5)

(NY 704659). 'There are several lawes, barrows or tumuli near Walwick Chesters to Carrvoran, particularly near the branch of the military way, that goes off to Great Chesters, and within sight of the station, which they call the four lawes'. (6)

(NY 704659) Four-lawes, some flat tumuli south of Great Chesters. 'There are more than four; we counted seven'. The word four is believed to be a corruption of the British word Ffordd, a road, and is not applicable as a numeral. (7)(8)

(Centred NY 704659) Tumuli (NR) (10 shown). (9)

(Centred NY 704659) Tumuli (NR) (8 shown). (10)

(On both maps the name Four Laws is applied to the building at NY 70626584).
NY 704660. Group of round barrows north west of Four Laws Farm. Scheduled. (11)

The barrows at Four Laws are compared with those at Petty Knowes, Rochester (NY 89 NW 8 and 21), distinctive in form as having a low central mound surrounded by a shallow ditch and outer bank. Here excavation proved them to be Roman. (12)

SAM management agreement. (13)

Part of national monument number 26019, scheduling revised on 14th July 1997. The Four Laws cemetery is situated west of Markham Cottage Roman temporary camp 1 (NY 76 NW 14), along a stretch of plateau lying along the north side of the Stanegate. This vast cemetery includes the remains of at least 15 upstanding burial mounds. However, many more are known from early Ordnance Survey maps and aerial photographs from the 1930s. The extant mounds vary in their dimensions from 0.1m to 0.6m in height and from 3m to 7.6m in diameter. In addition, these low central banks are surrounded by a shallow circular ditch and outer bank which gives them the form characteristic of Roman barrows found elsewhere in the northern frontier area. The barrows of the cemetery lie to the north of the Stanegate both inside and outside Camp 1 at the western end of this section.
The Roman cemetery survives as both upstanding and buried remains, while ditches in parts of the cemetery survive as buried features. Roadside cemeteries were common in Roman Britain but very few survive as visible features, as is the case here. They demonstrate well the complexity of remains found in the frontier zone and will contribute to any study of Roman burial practice. (14)

A cemetery formerly consisting of at least 18 round barrows or tumuli, all less than 10m in diameter. Each barrow consists of a mound encircled by a shallow ditch. In addition there are another five small earthworks which are oblong or sub-rectangular, rather than circular, in shape but with dimensions comparable to those of the others. These could also be barrows or, less probably, peat stands. Of the 23 monuments referred to only eight are now extant, the remainder having been levelled by ploughing. The cemetery in its earlier form is recorded on air photographs taken by the RAF in October 1930. Several of the larger barrows exhibit clear signs of having been trenched and John Wallis (1769) records that at least one barrow was opened in about 1757 by a Presbyterian minister from Haltwhistle who, it is said, found nothing but ashes. (15)

Thirteen barrows could be identified in various states of preservation. The six best preserved were surveyed at 1:100. (16a)

The barrow cemetery was mapped from aerial photographs at a scale of 1:10000 as part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site Mapping Project. An examination of 1930s photography suggested the main part of the cemetery lay between NY 7033 6588 and NY 7061 6596, and comprised as many as 32 barrows, of various sizes. The majority appear to comprise a central mound surrounded by a shallow ditch and slight outer bank. The form is predominantly circular, but 2 or 3 are square. The two barrows recorded in Roman camp Markham Cottage 1 (NY 76 NW 47) show the same variation in form. At the western end the barrows appear to extend over fragmentary traces of prehistoric cord rig (NY 74 NW 347). (16b)

Located on the English Heritage map of Hadrian's Wall 2010. (16c)