Friday Photo: Kingstanding Mound

Today’s Friday Photo is Kingstanding Mound, an scheduled ancient monument located in Kingstanding on the junction of Sutton Oak Road with Kingstanding road.  It is the remains of a bowl barrow, a prehistoric burial mound, and its age is somewhere from late neolithic to late bronze age.  It lies along the old Icknield Street Roman road which runs south of Sutton Park.  It measure around 20m in diameter and upto 1.25 m high.    It is of significant interest to the area because it is the place where Kingstanding got its name! During the beginning of the English Civil War it is thought that King Charles I used the mound as a meeting place to rally his troops brought out from Shropshire.  The theory is  that the “King” was “Standing”  on the mound whilst he shouted to his troops, thus the area was forever more known as  “Kingstanding”.  Today, it is barely noticeable unless you are know it is there and there is no monument or sign to commemorate it. In fact many local people will pass by this everyday without knowing its significance to the their area!