Two Barrows, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park
There's a display cabinet in Postbridge National Park Visitor Centre which contains a replica of the Hameldon Dagger or Hamel Down Dagger. The display reads: 'Hameldon dagger. In 1872 the original dagger was found with a burial of burnt human bones in a cairn or barrow at Hameldon. It consists of a beautifully shaped bronze blade and an amber pommel studded with thin gold wire. Unfortunately, the original was destroyed in the bombing of Plymouth is the Second World War. [Original used] around 1,700 BC. Made by Neil Burridge.'
Hameldon is Hamel Down. According to the Dartmoor expert William Crossing, the dagger was found at Two Barrows on Hamel Down. Crossing writes:
'From Single Barrow the boundary runs a little E. of S. to Two Barrows, which are close to the corner of the wall surrounding Blackaton Down. This wall is carried down the hill westward to the Webburn, more than 500 feet below, and here forms a boundary of Manaton parish, Blackaton Down, as well as Hameldon, being in Widecombe. One of these barrows was also opened by Mr. Spence Bate, in the year preceding that of his investigation of Single Barrow. He found it to be formed like the other, and it also yielded burnt human bones and charcoal. But the chief object of interest was the bronze blade of a dagger, and the amber pommel of the same, inlaid with small pins of gold. This is now in the Museum of the Plymouth Institution. The boundary between the manors of Natsworthy and Blackaton is now marked by the wall which runs S.E. by S. for 1/4 m. to the large tumulus known as Hameldon Beacon, over which it is carried.'
We've positioned Two Barrows on Google maps so zoom in on the 'Satellite' setting to see their location.
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