An information panel was installed at the Twin Barrows site on Lansdown on Thursday 18 June 2026.
Henry Lowe, Chair of the BACAS Trustees, who ran the project to get the panel installed, expressed how pleased he was that it had been completed. He said it had required contributions and co-operation from several organisations: Bathscape (with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund), Historic England, Cotswold Wardens, Bath Racecourse and Lansdown Golf Club.
The Twin Barrows are situated at the narrowest point on the Lansdown Plateau, opposite St Lawrence’s Chapel. They were excavated in 1908 by T. S. Bush. The southern barrow was about 2.1m high, with a hollow in the centre. The other barrow was 1.77m high and elongated in shape. In the excavation it was found to be made up of stones. Finds included a human skeleton, cinerary urns and other pottery.
In 2018, the Twin Barrows site was identified as one of Lansdown’s archaeological sites which were at risk and needed monitoring. Numerous archaeological features on the Lansdown plateau have been destroyed, and it was felt that clearance of the scrub and a geophysical project as part of Bathscape would help draw attention and arrest the site’s degradation. In 2021, Cotswold Wardens cleared scrub that had grown up on the scheduled monument and BACAS undertook a geophysical survey of the barrows to establish their extent and the alignment of the Roman road within the small field which contains the barrows – Fair Field.
Results from the geophysical survey were consistent with the excavation report of 1908, and the project drew attention to the site. The report (part 1 and part 2) concluded a maintenance plan was required, and proposed an information panel be installed, in the hope that the site would be better cared for in the future.
In August 2025 Mel Barge at Historic England confirmed she was keen, as long as the panel was close to the wall and north of the path. This would be outside the scheduled area. There may still be archaeology and they’d expect archaeological monitoring of any excavations for foundations.
Bathscape kindly agreed to provide the funding for the manufacture of the frame and panel and the artwork design. The artwork was produced by a local illustrator, Rhys Kitson.
The Cotswold Wardens were particularly helpful. They installed the frame for the panel on the Wednesday in pouring rain and Henry attached the graphic panel the following day.
The Wardens will continue to trim the site, and it’s proposed that (with the relevant authorities’ permission – the site owners have already approved) two of the three alders on the principal barrow be removed to return it to its appearance of twenty years ago.
David Metcalfe kindly undertook a watching brief for the excavation of the trench. Finds included several shards of broken crockery, fragments of red tile, fragments of clay pipe stems, three small pieces of charcoal and a bead. The bead, when later cleaned, was identified as a millefiori glass trade bead. Overall, the finds from deeper in the dark-earth fill would be consistent in nature and in date as material deposited by people in early modern times, perhaps during the annual Lansdown Fairs (10th August) or during a casual visit, or visits, to the barrows on other occasions. The finds could date to anytime from Georgian through Victorian times (roughly AD 1700 – 1900). The fragments which came out of the trench were returned to it, apart from the bead which David wanted to check.