The mound
Scutchamer Knob is a large mound built of layers of turf, about 34 metres across and 3 metres high, standing on the downs just south of the Ridgeway on the boundary between East and West Hendred. A ditch about 2.5 metres wide once surrounded it; it is now barely visible but has been traced by excavation, geophysics and lidar. Historic England thinks it is most likely a Bronze Age round barrow, perhaps reused for Saxon burials, and later used as an assembly place and a beacon. Today it is crescent-shaped with a deep hollow in the middle, because a large part was dug away in the 19th century; accounts differ over whether this was in 1842 or 1844.
Cwichelm’s barrow
The old name, Cwichelmeshlaew, means Cwichelm’s barrow. Cwichelm was a 7th-century king of the West Saxons whose death in 636 is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the mound has long been said to be his grave, though digging has found nothing to prove it. The Victoria County History called it ‘probably’ his burial mound; Historic England is more cautious.
A meeting place of the shire
A charter of about 990–992 names Cwichelmeshlaew as the place where a ‘gemot’, a meeting or court, was held; it is usually taken to have been the meeting place of the Berkshire shire court. In 1006 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that a Danish army, having burned Wallingford, marched along the downs to Cwichelmeshlaew and waited there, in defiance of the boast that if they ever reached it they would never get back to the sea. They then turned back towards the coast by another route and routed an English force gathered at East Kennet on the way. Later traditions say that markets or meetings were held at the mound into the 17th century.
Visiting
The mound is beside the Ridgeway National Trail and can be reached on foot at any time. There is a small Ridgeway car park near the mound. Our walk from West Ilsley follows the Ridgeway past it.
Nearby
The village of East Hendred, with Champs Chapel and Hendred House, lies below to the north. The Lord Wantage monument is about two miles west along the Ridgeway.