The King’s Standing mound

At the top of the hill, where the ground falls away gently to the north and more steeply to the south towards Birmingham, is a low grassy mound. It sits beside the line of Icknield (Ryknield) Street — the Roman road that ran north through here to the fort at Wall. It is a scheduled ancient monument, and it gave this whole district its name.

What is it?

Nobody can say for certain — and that is part of its charm. It has been recorded as a round barrow, a burial mound from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, which would make it around four thousand years old. Others have thought it Roman — a roadside tomb beside the street. When the Library of Birmingham’s photographers came in 1966 they called it “this inconspicuous earthwork”, a prehistoric burial mound.

The Victorian historian W. H. Duignan was sure: “doubtless a prehistoric tumulus, though it may have been used by Charles.” The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow. The archaeologist Mike Hodder offered a third idea in 1988: standing so close to the old Kingstanding Warren, it might be an artificial rabbit warren of medieval or later date. It is scheduled as a bowl barrow.

Silver chains and a rebuilt mound

One old account tells a stranger story. When the nearby wood was cleared, it says, labourers found “a considerable treasure of silver chains”. And it claims the original mound was destroyed “in ignorance” by a new tenant clearing his land — and that the mound we see today was thrown up by him afterwards, when his neighbours told him about King Charles.

How the mound has changed

In Duignan’s day it was, he wrote, about twenty feet across and five feet high, fenced with iron hurdles and planted with young trees. His twenty feet is probably a slip for twenty yards: every later survey makes it about 20 metres across. Later surveys found it about 16 metres across and 1.2 metres high, wooded, inside a wooden palisade, with no trace of a ditch around it. Since then the council has remodelled and re-turfed it and taken the fence away; it is now about 20 metres across and less than a metre and a quarter high. Historic England’s scheduling record adds that a slight hollow at its foot marks a ditch, now buried, about 3 metres wide.

That last makeover means surveyors can no longer tell from the ground whether it is a true ancient burial mound or a later landmark. Either way, it is the King’s Standing.

The King who stood here

The name itself may be medieval — a “standing” was a spot where a king waited for deer to be driven past to hunt. The oldest written account tells a different story. In his Natural History of Stafford-shire of 1686, Robert Plot linked the King’s Standing with Danish kings addressing their armies. The Civil War story comes later: it first appears in print in Stebbing Shaw’s history of 1798, which has King Charles I standing here in 1642, at the very start of the war, to address the troops he had brought out of Shropshire. Whether or not he did, the name stuck — the king, standing on the mound — and it has named these streets ever since.

Then and now

1966

2005