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CODFORD CIRCLE

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DESCRIPTION

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An earthwork hilltop enclosure situated on the crest of Codford Hill, a chalk promontory of Salisbury Plain. An elevated oval area of 3.6 hectares is surrounded by a bank 6.5 metres wide and up to 1.6 metres high from the outside. This is surrounded by a ditch 5 metres wide and up to 0.5 metres deep except for a section around the south eastern edge where it has been reduced by ploughing. Air photographs taken in 2001 revealed an inner ditch, probably a palisade, running concentric to the earthwork and with clear opposing entrances to the east and west. Entrances on the south east and north west through the earthworks are modern.

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(Centred ST 9825 4056) Codford Circle or Wilsbury Ring (GT). (1)

Oldbury Camp(2)(3), Wilsbury Ring(3) Woldsbury(4) and Codford Circle (3) are all names recorded for the earthwork on Oldbury or Codford Hill. (None of the names is listed in the E.P.N.S. volume for Wilts and it is debatable whether the 'Oldbury' element does not refer to Oldbury Castle - SU o6 NW 27). It is a circular earthwork formed by a light bank and outer ditch. (2-5)

Codford Circle is a single bank in the form of a regular oval (200 x 240m) on the top of Codford Hill. The bank is slight and varies between 0.3m. to a scarp of 1.5m. An outer ditch is traceable. There is no obvious entrance nor sign of occupation; defensively the feature is weak and cannot be more than an enclosure of indeterminate date.

Published survey (1/2500) revised. (6)

No change; report of 3.1.69 correct. (7)

Aerial photographs taken July 25th 2001 showed an inner ditch circuit visible as a cropmark. It runs more or less concentric to the earthworks, and around 25 metres inside them. It features clear entrances on the east and west sides, and is circa 190 metres northeast-southwest and 150 metres wide, its axis the same as Codford Circle itself. A number of pit-like features are also visible in the interior of the hillfort and the probable palisade, but none need be of archaeological origin. (8)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1961.

( 2) by Sir Richard Colt Hoare; introduction by Jack Simmons and D D A Simpson 1975 The ancient history of Wiltshire

1 Page(s)80

( 3) edited by R B Pugh and Elizabeth Crittall 1957 A history of Wiltshire: volume 1, part 1

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)264

( 4) Annotated Record Map

Rec. 6" (OGS Crawford, udated)

( 5) Aerial photograph

APs. 540/854/3381; St. Joseph AT 25; Crawford F7, M110.

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JP 03-JAN-69

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

F2 MJF 23-JUN-75

(8) Scheduled Monument Notification

16-JUL-1999

(9) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR 21348/01 ST 9840/24 25-JUL-2001

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