| Summary : A slight univallate hillfort located on the south western outskirts of the village of Padbury. The hillfort stands on a slight plateau bounded on the north western side by a meander of the Padbury Brook. The hillfort's perimeter can be traced across the pasture to the south, where it forms an oval circuit measuring some 200 metres from north to south and 250 metres from east to west. The boundary earthworks are thought to have been designed to enhance the natural topography and to have included an inner bank surrounded by an external ditch, except on the north western side where a single outward scarp faces the brook. The ditch has largely been infilled, although one section, measuring some 8 metres to 12 metres in width and 0.8 metres deep, remains visible around the northern part of the boundary. The bank can still be traced on the eastern side of the perimeter, where it measures about 10 metres in width and 0.4 metres high. The bank is known to have stood up to 1 metre in height around the south western side, although it was pushed into the ditch in the 1940s when the interior was briefly cultivated. The boundary on this side is now marked by a pronounced scarp which descends some 1.8 metres towards the line of the infilled ditch. The south eastern quarter of the ramparts, together with a small area of the interior, was completely destroyed by a 19th century clay quarry and brickworks (now abandoned). There is no visible evidence of habitation within the interior of the hillfort, which is generally level apart from a slight slope towards the brook. The name 'Norbury' was first recorded on a map of the All Soul's College Estates dated 1591, and is believed to derive from the old English terms 'noro', meaning north, and 'burgh', meaning a stronghold or fortified place. Evidently, the site remained notable for its defences long after its abandonment. Scheduled. |
More information : (SP 711300) Norbury (NR) (1)
A "camp" found at the south end of Padbury on low ground close
to the bridge. It is marked "Norbury" on the Elizabethan Estate
Map of All Souls' College, and is of irregular shape probably
never having more than a single mound and ditch, now much ploughed
out but easily traceable. (2)
Indications of a slight bank. (3,4)
An enclosure rather than a fort. (5)
Norbury: name verified (a)
The spread and mutilated remains of a univallate earthwork
formerly sub-circular in shape and enclosing a pastured area
of c 4.0 hectares. Although its position is not prominent its
location on the edge of a flood plain possibly gave it a natural
western defence.
Except for sections on th E & SW sides the bank survives as a
low amorphous spread, and only one section of ditch on the N side
survives, and this is confused by an old watercourse. According
to local information the bank at one time was over 1.0 m high
in most places but was reduced by war-time levelling. The clay
pit, which has destroyed the SE area, ceased working in c1914.(a)
The proportions of this work are consistent with a defended
enclosure/settlement of IA date. A similar work c 4.5 kms to the N
(also on a flood plain edge) is thought to be IA. See
SP 73 SW 8.
A map of Padbury dated c 1590 shows and names Norbury as an oval
enclosure devoid of internal detail.
Surveyed at 1:2500. (6)
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