Wayland’s Smithy is a chamber tomb site and Neolithic long barrow, which is found near Uffington Castle and White Horse in Ashbury, in Oxfordshire.
The large mound was originally estimated to be 185 feet long and 32 feet in width, near the south end of Wayland’s Smithy. The site was dug out and evacuated to its current appearance in 1962-1963 by Richard Atkinson and Stuart Piggott.
Through the studies they performed while excavating the land, they were able to prove that the site was actually constructed during two different time periods, with the second stone chamber built in 3400 BC, and the first timber chamber, oval barrow, built sometime in 3700’s BC.
The timber chamber house has a stone floor that has a large post at both ends with a burial slab placed at the one end, where fourteen different sets of remains were found disarticulated in front of it. Analysis of the remains showed that prior to their placement in the chamber house they were incinerated.
There are also postholes at one of the timber ends that may have been used as a support for the roofing. The entire burial house was covered at one point by an earth barrow that measures about 20m in length.
The other chamber tomb site has two different chambers built into it, as well as a terminal chamber, plus the entrance area, which makes the floor plan of the chamber resemble a cruciform.
This distinction allows the stone chamber to be part of the group of Severn-Cotswold tombs. It also had an earth barrow, enclosing the top of the structure with a stone kerb holding it up. When this stone chamber was excavated in 1919, there were remains from one child and seven adults buried within it.
Due to the stark difference in the two chambers, Wayland’s Smithy is viewed with great historical importance, since in one location, scientists and visitors can grasp the differences and transition in ancient times from timber to stone chamber tombs.
The name for the site comes from the Norse and Saxon god of blacksmithing, Wolund. The term Wayland is also thought to apply to Saxon invaders, who came to the area about 4,000 years ago roughly just after the site was thought to have been constructed.
Like most ancient sites, Wayland’s Smithy also has a fair amount of folklore attached to it. Such as the old tale, that a traveller who has lost a shoe on his horse, can simply leave the horse on top of the capstone, at the site, along with a silver coin, and return the next day to find the horse outfitted with a new shoe.
