More information : [Centred at SK 0443 1282] Castle Ring [TI] CAMP [OE] (1)
Scheduled. (2)
BA `thumb scraper' (3) and another scraper (4) found within the enclosure in 1931 and c.1908 respectively.
Castle Ring is a multi-vallate, IA plateau-type, hill-fort with defences comprising a large bank with an outer ditch, strengthened by additional banks and ditches where the natural approaches are weakest. On the north are traces of a counterscarp bank; on the west is a second bank and ditch with counterscarp bank and on the east there are four supplementary banks and ditches. There is an original inturned entrance at the north-east corner; a gap in the south-west rampart does not appear to be original.
The hill-fort is on open heathland almost completely surrounded by Forestry Commission plantations; it is the property of the Cannock U.D.C. and is maintained as an open space for the public.
A 25" survey has been made. (5)
No change. Published survey (1:2500) revised. (6)
Listed by Challis and Harding as a nine acre hillfort with extensive multivallations (Iron Age). (7)
SK 044 128. Castle Ring, Cannock. Listed in gazetteer as a multivallate hillfort covering 3.6ha. (8)
Description and plan. (9)
The hillfort, centred at SK 0443 1282 was surveyed at 1:1000 by RCHME in 1987. They are much as described by W Woodhouse (Authority 5). The fort is an irregular pentagon in shape with straight sides. The inner ditch is quite angular with a substantial inner rampart and external counterscarp. It is circumscribed by a second, less angular ditch, spoil form which has formed a counterscarp along both sides. The E approach to the fort is via more level terrain which affords a weaker natural defence. The ramparts here are correspondingly more substantial, and there is evidence, too, of multiple phasing within the earthworks. The external ditch constitutes a later, possibly unfinished, addition to the ramparts which has increased the overall width of the defences from 40m to 60m. The main inner rampart in general is a broad, flat-topped feature, however this is unrepresentative of the earthwork's true form, and is the result of being capped with a gravel pathway which may date to the eighteenth century. Other paths which dissect the fort interior may also be of a similar date. As noted by Authority 5 there is an original in-turned entrance in the NE of the fort. An area of quarrying immediately W of the entrance may be associated with the construction of carriage drives within the fort, and a break in the SW rampart mentioned by Authority 5 (which is certainly not original) may be of the same date as the quarrying. No features contemporary with the hillfort survive above ground in the fort interior although traces of possible ridge and furrow were identified within Castle Ring. These cut into the E and SE of the inner defences, and where the ploughing stopped short of the rampart a slight berm has formed. These are narrow and certainly late; the fort interior was probably still under cultivation in 1884. Low angular scarps in the middle of the fort are the remains of late field boundaries. Tree ridging is also visible; it covers the entire SE portion of the fort although no trees were ever planted here. Earthwork evidence survives of a medieval Lodge in the NW corner of the fort (SK 01 SW 2). A resistivity survey of part of the fort interior carried out in 1987 (10a) failed to provide any further detail about the site.
Full RCHME survey information, including a detailed report, is available in the NMR Archive. (10)
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