Five Wells Chambered Tomb

Five Wells stands on Taddington Moor in the Derbyshire limestone uplands. Two chambers were arranged back to back, with passages approaching from opposite sides of a roughly circular mound. Their limestone slabs once lay within a cairn covered by earth and stone, an arrangement differing from the elongated long barrows better known elsewhere in England. Much of the mound was removed for building material from the eighteenth century onwards. Thomas Bateman excavated in 1846, followed by investigations by Jewitt, Lukis and Salt during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Human remains, pottery and flint implements identified the chambers as a communal burial place. Additional burials outside the main cairn indicate later prehistoric reuse. Although disturbance has reduced the mound, surviving architecture and buried deposits retain evidence of its construction and changing use. The exposed stones represent the interior of a former monument, rather than its complete original appearance. Period: Neolithic with later prehistoric reuse Grid reference: SK 12377 71038 Protection: Scheduled monument Source: Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1008940 (Open Government Licence). © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Banner photo: "Five Wells Chambered Tomb - geograph.org.uk - 3848378" by Dave Dunford, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.