NGR:  SD 8903 2387. Tooter Hill  at Sharneyford, near Bacup, in Rossendale, Lancashire, was probably first settled in the Neolithic period of prehistory, but also, too, in the Bronze Age. There is evidence of an ancient field system at the western side of the hill and also a “possible” ring cairn type of burial on the summit. There must have been an ancient settlement or enclosure upon the hill because there have been many interesting finds over the past century or so, some of these archaeological finds being found by local people traversing the windswept hill, and quite a few deposited and displayed in the N.A.T.S. museum in the nearby town of Bacup. However, there are many quarry mounds and quarry holes upon the hill’s summit so it is not always easy to say just what-is-what; and there was mining up there in the 19th century, but there are a few other earthwork-type features, too, and these could have ancient origins? There are at least three footpaths running off Limers Gate Lane and one from the A681 (Todmorden Road) at Holden Gate; these foot paths all tend to skirt the periphery of the hill from around the N. E. and S. sides.

Tooter Hill (I have heard it called Toot Hill) is 430 feet (131.64m) in height, and is about 1 mile southeast of Sharneyford village on the A681, near Bacup. There may have been a Neolithic settlement on the summit, but more likely it was inhabited during the Bronze Age. There is a “possible” ring cairn at the northern side of the hill – if that’s what it is because there are many more recent mounds and depressions up there due to quarrying and mining, which took place in the Victorian period.  Many in-teresting ancient artefacts have been dug up from beneath the peat on Tooter Hill over the past century or so. A tanged and barbed arrowhead with serrated edges (probably an archery weapon) dating from the Neolithic period (4,500BC-2,500BC) was excavated along with an arrowhead from the Bronze-Age (2,500BC-700BC), and also a tranchet-shaped arrowhead (its date unknown). These are housed in the N.A.T.S. museum on Yorkshire Street, in Bacup, 1½ miles to the southwest. There is also a collection of small flint implements from the hill including a flint scraper, flint adze and a flint borer; but more recently flints have been found on the hill by local people.

Sources / References & Related Websites:-

(Many thanks to Stephen Oldfield for the use of his photo).

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=29213

https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/tooter-hill/

http://www.bacupnaturalhistorysociety.co.uk/

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=30846

Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2020.