More information : (SU 04843580) Grovely Castle (NAT) CAMP (NR) (1)
A univallate hill-fort of 13 acres. Five human skeletons deposited at the time the rampart was built, not in graves but in the chalk filling of the rampart, were discovered by PF Ewence. An Iron Age 'A' sherd was found with two of the skeletons. Grinsell (2) considers the burials to be probably Phase 2. An Iron Age 'C' (Phase 3c Belgic) sherd was found by RS Newall, on ploughland at the edge of the hill-fort. A bank and ditch, passing through the hill-fort and post-dating the main work, is probably part of the surrounding field system (see SU 03 NE 47). (2,3)
SU 048358. A univallate hillfort, enclosing approximately 5 1/2
hectares, situated on the NE end of a promontory of downland.
The rampart is up to 3.2m high above the bottom of an outer ditch which is up to 1.5m deep in W, but which can only be identified as a soilmark on OS APs in the N and E. Entrances appear to have been in the SW and NE, but continued ploughing of the latter has reduced the rampart to a scarp, and detail is obscured.
In the E, W, S and SE, the banks of a celtic field system (SU 03 NW 47) clearly overlie the rampart and doubtless account for the other irregular mutilations along its length.
Re-surveyed at 1:2500. (4)
SU 048 358. Grovely Castle. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 5.3ha. (5)
Grovely Castle hillfort was surveyed by staff from RCHME Salisbury office as part of a project focussing on the earthworks of South Wiltshire. The following is a summary of the detailed archive report:
Grovely Castle, a univallate hillfort enclosing 1.3ha, is situated at 152m OD and forms one element in an extensive distribution of Prehistoric and Romano-British settlement located on the Grovely Great Ridge. The S half of the defences consists of a rampart and external ditch, but on the N ploughing has reduced it to a lynchet. The S and SE sectors have been constructed as a series of dumps of material which gives an unfinished appearance to the ramparts. The ditch is external, and there is a counterscarp bank running for c35m S of the W entrance. An internal quarry scoop located immediately within the rampart, and is best preserved in the S part of the enclosure.
The hillfort interior contains evidence from a number of phases of activity. Within, and near, the quarry scoops are a number of circular and sub-circular hollows which may be the remains of building platforms. Furthermore, APs taken by Alexander Keiller show a circular enclosure c 35-40m in diameter within the hillfort.
An extensive 'Celtic' field system lies to the SE of Grovely Castle, and part of this overlies, and thus postdates, the ditch in the E part of the hillfort. Fragments of field system also lie to the W of Grovely Castle, in this case contiguous with the hillfort and continuing within it. The lynchet which runs for c100m on a SW-NE alignment from the NW apex of the hillfort is part of this system. It has truncated the inner face of the rampart, again suggesting that the field system is later than the hillfort.
Within the interior another bank and ditch runs E from the SW entrance for a distance of c145m. The bank is flanked to the N by a ditch, and at its west end this linear feature cuts into the inner face of the rampart. Possibly a former woodland or field boundary, it continues S from the entrance for another 100m and post-dates the hillfort. A dew-pond c16 sq m in area lies 10m to the W of the hillfort. It is surrounded by a low bank. (6)
The statement made in source 6 that Grovely Castle 'enclos[es] 1.3ha' is unlikely to be correct. The area of land given in sources 4 and 5 are most likely to be more accurate. (8) |