The Six Hills, Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Photo: Ricjl (talk) (Uploads)/Wikimedia
Set on Six Hills Common, stand six ancient mounds known as the Six Hills. They may look like Bronze Age burial mounds, but they are actually Roman barrows.
The mounds sit beside London Road, the Great North Road (the old A1), Six Hills Way and Kings Road, just outside Stevenage New Town. Roman burial mounds are often called tumuli, and the Six Hills are thought to form a Roman barrow cemetery.
Antiquarians excavated several of the mounds in the early 1740s, but found no burials—only fragments of wood and iron. At least one mound was never excavated, so its contents remain unknown. Today, the barrows stand about 10 feet high, though they were probably taller originally. They would also have had flat tops, now altered by the early excavations.
So who, if anyone, was buried here? Perhaps wealthy Romans from Londinium, about 32 miles to the south, or residents of a nearby Roman villa. Wymondley, near Nine Springs and just east of Hitchin, is the closest known villa, around six miles to the northwest. Two others lie several miles to the southwest.
With no burials found in at least five of the mounds—and the sixth still a mystery—the story of who these striking monuments were built for remains open.
How to find the The Six Hills, Stevenage, Hertfordshire (Google Maps).
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