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BROADBURY BANKS

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Broadbury Banks is thought to be an Iron Age enclosure or hillfort which was never completed, or was slighted. An alternative explanation is that it is a fortuitous arrangement of Medieval or Post Medieval hollow ways and quarries leading up the scarp edge. The earthworks are situated on a north facing slope on Wilsford Hill, overlooking the Vale of Pewsey. Where best preserved on the west side, it comprises an inner bank, 8m wide, up to 1.2m high, with an external ditch which is 4m wide and up to 0.4m deep which has an outer bank, 4m wide, and 5m high. The ditch and outer bank are fragmentary. The north and east sides are defined by a simple scarp, increasing in height from 2.0m to a maximum 5.0m at the NE corner. Colt-Hoare investigated the site, published in 1812, but found no evidence of occupation. There is an old chalk quarry at the northern end of the enclosure. If this was once an enclosure then there are no traces on the ground or aerial photographs of a south side, and no entrance gaps are visible in the existing earthworks. The interior has been in arable cultivation, and has been photographed from the air at relatively regular intervals since the 1940s but no interior features have been recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs so far. Two dark marks in the centre of the enclosure, recorded on 1945 aerial photographs, may be relatively modern and do not seem to represent archaeological remains.

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SU 09285556 Broadbury Banks (NAT) Camp (NR). (1)

Broadbury Banks; unfinished or mutilated Iron Age fort of 12 1/2
acres, situated on the slope of the escarpment overlooking the
valley. Hoare dug in it, but found no signs of occupation. (2-5)

'Broadbury Banks' (name not verified locally), the remains of
a probable Iron Age defended enclosue possibly never completed
situated upon the northern end of Wilsford Hill at 182m OD.

The work measures internally 250.0m N-S by an average 200.0m
transversely. Where best preserved on the west side, it
comprises an inter bank, 8.0m wide, up to 1.2m high on the
interior, dropping 3.0 to 3.5m to a ditch, 4.0m wide and up to
0.4m deep with an outer bank, 4.0m wide, 0.5m high externally.
The ditch and outer bank are fragmentary. On the N. and E, the
work is reduced to a simple scarp, increasing in height from 2.0m
to a maximum 5.0m at the NE corner. There are no traces on
ground or APs (5) of a south side to the enclosure, and no
entrance gaps in the existing work. The interior is arable under
wheat when visited, and the greater part of the surviving
perimeter bank is covered by trees and scrub.

Published 1:2500 AM survey revised. (6)

The earthworks described above are recorded on aerial photographs. There is an old chalk quarry at the northern end. There is no evidence on aerial photographs that there was a south side, if this was once an enclosure. The "interior" has been in arable cultivation, and has been photographed from the air at relatively regular intervals since the 1940s but no features have been recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs so far. Two dark marks in the centre of the enclosure, recorded on 1945 aerial photographs, may be relatively modern and do not seem to represent archaeological remains. (5,7)

Field reconnaissance during the Salisbury Plain Training Area survey suggested that Broadbury Banks is not an unfinished hillfort but a fortuitous arrangement of Medieval or Post Medieval hollow ways leading up the escarpment.
(8)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1961

( 2) Externally held archive reference

Arch of Wessex 1958 174 (L V Grinsell)

( 3) Externally held archive reference

VCH Wilts 1 pt 1 1957 270 (L V Grinsell)

( 4) Externally held archive reference

Ancient Wilts South 1812 177 (R C Hoare)

( 5) Vertical aerial photograph reference number

NMR RAF/106G/UK/942 4128-9 19-OCT-1945

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 02-JUN-77

(7) Vertical aerial photograph reference number

NMR MAL/71016 143-4 23-MAR-1971

(8) Externally held archive reference

McOmish D, Field D & Brown G 2002 The Field Archaeology of Salisbury Plain Training Area.. Swindon: English Heritage Page(s)81

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