Summary : A scheduled banjo enclosure possibly dating to the Late Iron Age, visible as earthwork banks and ditch, was mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1930 and 1946. Located on Walton Down, northeast of Walton-in-Gordano village and centred at ST 4289 7377, the feature comprises a subcircular earthwork enclosure, with outer ditch and inner earthwork bank, measuring about 88 metres NNW-SSE and 100 metres WSW-ENE. The bank is between 2 and 3 metres wide and the ditch between 1 and 2 metres wide. The central enclosure encompasses an area of about 70 square metres. On its ENE side, two parallel curvilinear banks, each about 2 metres wide and between 8.5 to 9 metres apart, extend 150 metres WSW-northeast. The end of this avenue is intersected at right angles by a linear earthwork bank, about 3 metres wide, 81 metres long, aligned northeast-southwest, which turns slightly northeast at each end and with a 4 metres wide gap in the middle. About 70 metres southeast of the central enclosure of the banjo enclosure is the remains of a rhomboidal earthwork bank and ditch enclosure, centred at ST 4295 7373. The longest of the three linear ditches is about 46 metres, aligned northwest-southeast and with an earthwork bank on the inside of the enclosure; from which two parallel ditches about 20 and 30 metres long extend WSW-ENE. Aerial photographs taken in 1989 show that, although fragments are still visible, much of these features have been significantly covered by the encroachment of scrub vegetation and woodland. |
More information : [ST 42847373] EARTHWORKS [G.T.]. (1) The Earthworks on Walton Common Down comprise a roughly circular enclosure with a rampart of limestone blocks, seldom more than 2 1/2 feet high, with an outer ditch c.9 inches deep. There are two entrances, on the south and north-east, approached by avenues formed by embanked paths. The north-eastern avenue passes through a cross-bank and ditch. The earthwork is not a henge as has been suggested; Irish examples are known to have been sheep-pens. The earthwork appears to overlie marks of cultivation. [See A.Ps.] A bank and ditch form a fragmentary rhomboidal enclosure on the south of the main earthwork. A trial excavation in 1956, by Clevedon Arch. Soc., on the southern earthwork suggests that it was unfinished. Dating evidence was inconclusive and the finds comprised two Medieval potsherds, pieces of iron ore and some flint fragments. See AO/58/154/3 for a plan of the earthworks] and AO/61/230/5 for reproductions of pre-war A.Ps (4)]. (2-4) The circular enclosure and the approach work are very weak and now appear as turf covered banks averaging 0.3m. high; the outer ditch to each-bank is from 0.1 m. to 0.3m deep. Two possible hut sites within the enclosure are visible on the air photograph (AO/61/230/5) but they cannot be traced on the ground, nor can the unusual field system which also appears on the photograph. The enclosure is evidently pastoral, though its date is uncertain. Resurveyed at 1/2500 The rhomboidal enclosure, which can be seen in its entirety on AO/62/230/5, is only partly traceable on the ground. It may also be pastoral. Re-surveyed at 1/2500. (5) No change. (6) A typical 'banjo' enclosure, some exmaples of which have been dated to the Late Iron Age. (7) Banjo enclosure at Walton Down visible on AP (8) Additional reference (9)
A banjo enclosure possibly dating to the Late Iron Age, visible as earthwork banks and ditch, was mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1930 and 1946. Located on Walton Down, northeast of Walton-in-Gordano village and centred at ST 4289 7377, the feature comprises a subcircular earthwork enclosure, with outer ditch and inner earthwork bank, measuring about 88 metres NNW-SSE and 100 metres WSW-ENE. The bank is between 2 and 3 metres wide and the ditch between 1 and 2 metres wide. The central enclosure encompasses an area of about 70 square metres. On its ENE side, two parallel curvilinear banks, each about 2 metres wide and between 8.5 to 9 metres apart, extend 150 metres WSW-northeast (ST 4289 7378 to ST 4302 7384). The end of this avenue is intersected at right angles by a linear earthwork bank, about 3 metres wide, 81 metres long, aligned northeast-southwest (ST 4306 7381 to ST 4301 7387), which turns slightly northeast at each end and with a 4 metres wide gap in the middle. About 70 metres southeast of the central enclosure of the banjo enclosure is the remains of a rhomboidal earthwork bank and ditch enclosure, centred at ST 4295 7373. The longest of the three linear ditches is about 46 metres, aligned northwest-southeast and with an earthwork bank on the inside of the enclosure; from which two parallel ditches about 20 and 30 metres long extend WSW-ENE. Aerial photographs taken in 1989 show that, although fragments are still visible, much of these features have been significantly covered by the encroachment of scrub vegetation and woodland. (10-14)
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