H.E.R. record

.kmz file

Overview map

Hillfort set on isolated steep-sided and roughly flat-topped hill, much mutilated and defaced by quarrying on a large scale. {1}

The defences consist of inner bank, with a scarp, ditch, second bank and scarp. The finds from the site are: Neolithic flints including arrowheads, borers, scrapers, cores, blades and a knife found in 1950 and 1952. Human bones and a spindle whorl found in 1914. {2}

The interior ramparts survive up to 2.5m in places, 6m high externally and 14m wide. The external rampart on the SE, S and SW sides is 9m wide, 1.5m high internally and 7.5m externally with a small ditch along the perimeter. The ramparts are rather damaged on the SW by soil removal. A cowshed in this area is excluded from the scheduled area. {3}

The interior is arable-cultivated pasture, shown as coniferous woodland on 1920s OS 25" map. The defences are heavily quarried and wooded and are totally destroyed at the N end, where an unknown portion of the site has been quarried away. They are barely detectable on the E side. A substantial bank survives on W side, surmounted by a later hedge bank. Best preserved at S end, where a staggered entrance between the two lines of ramparts, their E terminals slightly inturned, survive. The outer bank on the W bifurcates 20m W of entrance. {4}

Roman coins of the late C2 were found on the slope in 1711. {5}

Coin hoard in interior found at ST09732816 in 1946. 1139 coins from AD270-4 to AD388 in a pot, at less than 1ft in depth. {13}

The surviving areas of the rampart are under stable woodland, the interior is used for pasture and is not suffering any erosion. {15}

Scheduling revised with new national number (was Somerset 441) on 7 July 1999. {16}

Before the interior was ploughed after WW1 it was reported that ‘foundations’ of buildings could be seen in the interior. {17}

Robertson's number for the coin hoard is 1498. {18}

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