Grinsell at the Museu Regional d'Arta, Mallorca in December 1979
Born
(1907-02-14)14 February 1907
London
Died
28 February 1995(1995-02-28) (aged 88)
Nationality
English
Citizenship
United Kingdom
Scientific career
Fields
Archaeology
Leslie Valentine GrinsellOBE FSA[1] (14 February 1907 – 28 February 1995) was an English archaeologist and museum curator. Publishing over twenty books on archaeology during his lifetime, he was renowned as a specialist on the prehistoric barrows of southern England.
Born in London and raised largely in Brighton, Grinsell developed an early interest in archaeology through visits to Brighton Museum. Later working as a bank clerk in London, he embarked on archaeological research in an amateur capacity, visiting prehistoric barrows during his weekends and holidays to record their shape, dimensions, and location. On the basis of his research, he published a range of academic articles and books on barrows during the 1930s, gaining recognition as Britain's foremost expert on the subject. In 1933, he carried out his only archaeological excavation, at the Devil's Humps in Sussex.
During the Second World War he joined the Royal Air Force and served in Egypt, where he acquainted himself with the archaeological remains of Ancient Egyptian society; after the war he published a book on the Egyptian pyramids. On his return to Britain, Grinsell became the treasurer of the Prehistoric Society, a position that he held from 1947 till 1970. Moving to Devizes, in 1949 he entered the archaeological profession as an assistant to Christopher Hawkes and Stuart Piggott at the Victoria County History project. From 1952 to 1972, Grinsell worked as Keeper of Anthropology and Archaeology at Bristol City Museum, during which time he continued his examination of barrows, focusing on those in south-west England. On retirement, he was appointed to the Order of the British Empire and a festschrift was published in his honour.
Over the course of his lifetime, Grinsell examined and catalogued around 10,000 barrows and advanced the archaeological understanding of such monuments. His use of non-excavatory fieldwork influenced much British archaeology in the latter part of his 20th century, while his willingness to pay attention to other sources of information, such as folklore and place-names, has been deemed ahead of its time.
^Hughes, Patrick; Davies, Ian F (1989). Highgate School Register (7th ed.). p. 189.
Leslie Valentine Grinsell OBE FSA (14 February 1907 – 28 February 1995) was an English archaeologist and museum curator. Publishing over twenty books...
Most bell barrows in the United Kingdom date to the early Bronze Age. LeslieGrinsell constructed a typology for bell barrows: Type Ia: A single mound with...
Roger Hetherington, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers LeslieGrinsell, archaeologist Roger le Geyt Hetherington, president of the Institution...
1723 as being 13 feet (4.0 m) long, it is now about half that length, LeslieGrinsell suggesting that fragments have occasionally been broken off for mending...
Circle" on their map. In his 1970 study of the archaeology of Exmoor, LeslieGrinsell thought that it was "probably" a stone circle. The common is also the...
believed that a crock of gold would be buried there, something that LeslieGrinsell deemed to be part of local folklore. Edwin Dunkin produced a plan of...
Menefee, published in the Folklore journal in 1975, and was part of LeslieGrinsell's catalogue of folkloric motifs associated with prehistoric sites in...
Saxon charter titled 'Barrow of the peasants'. Although recorded by LeslieGrinsell as a bowl barrow, the structure is untypical of a prehistoric burial...
Kathleen Kenyon and V. Gordon Childe. Fellow students included LeslieGrinsell and Leslie R. H. Willis; senior by a year were Nancy Sandars, Grace Simpson...
barrows outside the enclosure are listed in a gazetteer of Wiltshire by LeslieGrinsell, published in 1957, identified as Alton 10 and Alton 13. Phillips excavated...
examined the site in its "overgrown state". In 1953, the archaeologist LeslieGrinsell reported that several small trees and bushes had grown up within the...
RCHME report also commented on the history of the two barrows: in 1934 LeslieGrinsell noted that both had been damaged, presumably by antiquarians or looters...
circles on Exmoor: Withypool and Porlock Stone Circle. The archaeologist LeslieGrinsell suggested that the circular stone monument on Almsworthy Common was...
Prehistoric Society: 1–3. Grinsell, Leslie V. (1953). The Ancient Burial-Mounds of England (second ed.). London: Methuen & Co. Grinsell, Leslie V. (1976). Folklore...
writers who have expanded and embellished ad libitum as fancy prompted Grinsell, Leslie (1958). The archaeology of Wessex. London: Methuen. p. 298. OCLC 400319...
that was a via publica, maintained at central government expense. Grinsell, Leslie (1958). The archaeology of Wessex. London: Methuen. p. 298. OCLC 400319...
circles on Exmoor: Porlock and Withypool Stone Circle. The archaeologist LeslieGrinsell suggested that the circular stone monument on Almsworthy Common was...
the Reverend E.H. Steele in 1957; and with further correlations by LeslieGrinsell, also in 1957. Some burials and items were left in place by Cunnington...
Egyptian Civilization." National Geographic Apr. 2005: 106-21. Print. Grinsell, Leslie V. Barrow, Pyramid and Tomb: Ancient burial customs in Egypt, the Mediterranean...
New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11406-5. Grinsell, Leslie V. (1976). Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain. London: David...
became an orphan and she was adopted by her maternal grandfather William Grinsell Nicholl. She became the wife of the spiritualist Samuel Guppy in 1867....
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