Pennington Eller Barrow (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Coninger Wood; Ella-barrow

In the civil parish of Pennington.
In the historic county of Lancashire.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Lancashire North of the Sands.

OS Map Grid Reference: SD26507744
Latitude 54.18745° Longitude -3.12783°

Pennington Eller Barrow has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A tumulus shaped like an 'inverted vessel' situated c. half a mile SE of Castle Hill (SD 27 NE 13) measuring 400 ft in circumference with a maximum height of 50 ft. West described the field called Ellabarrow as "a name probably obtained from a large tumulus or artificial mount now covered with trees ..... which has perhaps been formed with materials brought from a large excavation in the field...." (Cowper).
An elongated turf covered mound in the form of a long barrow has a modern bank encircling its base, obliterating any possible ditch or retaining circle. The orientation and shape of the mound make it suspect as a barrow and possibly indicates a natural or industrial feature (F1 FDC 16-JUN-58).
The position of the mound, overlooked on three sides, further supports a non-antiquity classification but its appearance is certainly artificial - probably a spoil mound (F2 FRH 17-JAN-67).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1007230, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number cu111
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 37790.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2694.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 100
  1973 (6edn), Ancient Monuments in England (HMSO) p. 130
  West, T., 1805, Antiquites of Furness (Ulverston) p. 408-9 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Cowper, H.S., 1906, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 6 p. 317 (slight as barrow) online copy

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It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
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