Peak Experience

Picture of Five Wells  Picture of Five Wells  Picture of Five Wells

 

Two limestone tombs lie next to each other on top of a hill.  They were built and filled with the bones of the dead in the New Stone Age, or Neolithic, between 6,000 and 4,000 years ago.  From the hill, you get impressive views to the north across the limestone plateau.

 

Five Wells is 2 km west of Taddington, approximately 700 metres by footpath from the nearest road.

 

The earliest farmers built the tombs at Five Wells.  Two limestone chambers are positioned back-to-back and aligned east to west. They were originally buried deep in the heart of a large earth and stone mound. Antiquarians excavated Five Wells in the 1800s and found the chambers full of male and female human bones. One chamber held the bones of many individuals, including 12 jaws.  In the other chamber they found 3 complete skeletons.  Pieces of Neolithic pottery found with the skeletons dated the burials to the New Stone Age.

 

Because there were bones from many people in the tombs, we know that the chambers were not used for the simple burial of individuals in graves.  It is likely that the dead were first left out, their bodies exposed to the elements and wild animals (a process called excarnation).  Once the flesh had decayed, the living chose certain bones to keep in the chambers.  Here the remains of different individuals were mixed together.

 

Not everyone who died necessarily made it into a tomb.  The living chose only some people for this honour. Perhaps they were important individuals from the community, or people who died at auspicious occasions.

 

At Five Wells, there were originally two low entrances into the mound, from opposite sides.  These led to low passages reaching back into the chambers.  The entrances might have been blocked with large slabs which could be rolled to one side.  Religious leaders would crawl into the dark to conduct rites with the bones.  Perhaps some bones were brought outside to be used in ceremonies held in front of gatherings.

 

Some time later, the whole site was covered in a much larger mound to completely bury the entrances.  Then, around 200 years ago, wall builders completely removed the mound. 

 

Tombs such as Five Wells are the commonest Peak District monuments surviving from the New Stone Age.  The builders probably lived in small communities scattered across the region.  Living mobile lifestyles, they moved with their livestock between places that offered different resources.  They may have visited upland pastures and wooded valleys during the year, claiming access by traditional right.  The land around Five Wells was probably one of these pastures.  When these people placed the bones of their ancestors in a large mound on a prominent place they were reuniting the community with the land.  Their ceremonies demonstrated to other communities their own right to be there and were valuable in teaching youngsters about their traditions.