William Cunnington

Who was William Cunnington?

William Cunnington FSA was a self-educated merchant who developed an interest in the rich archaeological landscape around the Wiltshire village of Heytesbury where he lived and worked. In contrast to the vast majority of antiquarians of the time, Cunnington realised that to fully understand the barrows which fascinated him they should be excavated and recorded carefully and methodically. Beginning his work around 1798 the initial investigations were self-funded, but increasingly they attracted the interest of a succession of wealthy patrons culminating in Sir Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead. Hoare’s huge financial investment in Cunnington’s work from 1804, and the consequent increase in the number of excavations undertaken, enabled the latter to excavate several hundred barrows across south Wiltshire. By modern standards Cunnington’s excavation methodology – predominantly involving a shaft trench dug from the crown of a barrow to ground level in search of ‘novelties’ – was very poor, but he was the first archaeologist to undertake such an extensive campaign of work and was a true pioneer.