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MAIDEN BOWER HILLFORT

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A sub-circular earthwork enclosure of probable Iron Age date, overlying Neolithic features which suggest the presence of a causewayed enclosure (see SP 92 SE 42). The site was surveyed by RCHME in 1994 as part of the Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic Project. See the archive report for full details. The earthwork rampart is the most prominent suviving feature of the site. The bank forms an almost complete circuit, except along the north west side where quarrying and erosion have encroached. The area enclosed measures circa 4.9 hectares. There are several breaks in the circuit, the most likely entrance being a 7.3 metre wide gap in the south-east, where a subtle out-turn of the rampart suggests some elaboration of the defences at this point. Recent geophysical survey recorded an internal ditch circuit, concentric to the main enclosure. The RCHME survey picked up traces of a bank close to it. The bank is most probably a plough headland. The ditch, as well as earlier Neolithic features, has been exposed in the quarry face on the western side, and recording and salvage work was undertaken from 1878 onwards by Worthington Smith. Smith excavated within the earthwork enclosure entrance in 1913, while further rescue work and recording has been undertaken at the quarry face by members of the Manshead Society intermittently since the late 1930s. Artefacts rabging from Palaeolithic to Roman date have been recovered from the surface within and around the enclosure, as well as during quarrying adjacent to it. The area enclosed by the earthwork is scheduled.

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(SP 99682248) Maiden Bower (NR) (1)

Iron Age Fort (2)

An irregularly circular univallate earthwork enclosing more than 10 acres. Interior dimensions 775 ft North-South 750 ft East-West. The vallum has 5 or 7 entrances and depressions, the largest and true entrance being at the south. Finds in and about Maiden Bower include:Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age stone implements, Roman pottery (including Samian), human and animal bones and prehistoric burials, Roman glass, coins, a Roman intaglio and a quern of Andernach lava, bronze axes and metal objects. (3)

A Neolithic ditch has appeared at Maiden Bower. The ditch goes under the Iron Age rampart. (4)

Maiden's Bower was first recognised as a Neolithic causewayed camp by Piggott (a) overlain by an Iron Age plateau fort. From the position of ditch sections it would appear that either the causewayed camp consisted of at least two concentric circles of ditch or that it was oval in shape and at least 300 yards on its longest diameter. As no completely stratified excavation has ever taken place it is difficult to reconstruct phases of occupation. There is little evidence of continuity through the Bronze Age. Of the Iron Age the first is without doubt the A1 phase and its second probably Belgic. This assumption is based on secondary burials found in 1939. Roman finds near the site indicate that a Romano-British site possibly existed nearby. (5, 5a)

Place-name 'Maiden Bower'. 'Maiden' is said to be the Celtic 'Mai-dun', 'big hill' and 'bower' merely a dialectic equivalent of 'bury'. An alternative theory would derive 'maiden' from 'magh', 'level expanse' and 'dun', 'hill'; 'bower' from 'barr', 'summit'. (6)

Maiden Bower (name verified) is an Iron Age 'A' fort defended by a single rampart and outer ditch. The rampart occupied by a belt of trees, is 3.2m maximum height, and reduced to a width of circa 10.0m by ploughing. On the N side is the face of a quarry encroaching onto the work, where a section of a bucket-shaped post-hole sunk 0.8m into the chalk and 0.6m wide at the base is exposed. The ditch is silted up and can only be seen in the NE as an unsurveyable counter-scarp and in the W section in the quarry face. The original entrance is in the SE, with possibly another in the W. The only evidence to support the allegation that there was a causewayed camp here are two ditches overlaid by the Iron Age rampart in the quarry face at SP 99562259 which in the opinion of the investigator is insufficient proof of identity.
Published survey 1:2500 survey revised. (7)

An aerial photograph taken by the Manshead Archaeological Society shows round hut circles, and in the centre the marks of a square within a square reminiscent of a Roman temple. (8)

Observation of the quarry edge as it is eroded away has revealed that the pre-Iron Age ditches are irregular in profile. Two barbed and tanged arrowheads have been found in the upper filling of the western ditch, with a few fragments of pottery and bone. No remains have been found in the eastern ditch. (9)

Listed as a possible Neolithic causewayed camp by Palmer (10) and as proven by Wilson (11). (10-11)

A Mesolithic tranchet axe from Maiden Bower is in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford. (12)

(SP 9966 2247) In August 1994, RCHME undertook an analytical Level 3 earthwork survey of the site as part of the project to record Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic (13). As part of the survey, a full review of the history of archaeological research into the site was produced (see report held in Archive).
The rampart of the fort is essentially as described by Source 9: the enclosure measures 235m N-S by 215m E-W, with an internal area of c.4.9ha, and the rampart is 2.9m high on average. The probable single original entrance lies on the SE; it is some 7m wide and is associated with a slightly irregular section of the rampart which may indicate that the entrance was originally more elaborate than the simple break would suggest. Breaks on the N and E sides are almost certainly more recent damage. The derivations of the monument's name suggested above are unlikely to be correct.
A recent geophysical survey indicated the presence of a sub-circular ?ditch within the fort (13a). It did not appear to be causewayed, and was therefore interpreted as a henge or later prehistoric enclosure, possibly associated with the fort. A slight bank, up to 4m wide and 0.3m high, concentric with the Iron Age rampart at a distance of c.30m within it, was recorded by the RCHME survey. This probably relates to recent agriculture rather than the feature recorded by geophysics.
The features noted by authority 8 and interpreted there as hut circles and a possible Roman temple would appear, on examination of the photograph in question, not to represent archaeological features. They seem to follow the pattern of cultivation, and were not picked up during the geophysical survey.
Two ditches are evident in section in the edge of the chalk quarry at SP 9956 2248. The more northerly has a sharp V-shaped profile, 3.5m wide and 2.3m deep, and is clearly the fort ditch. The other has a shallow U-shaped profile 3.1m wide and 0.9m deep, which would certainly be consistent with a typical causewayed enclosure ditch. Several layers are evident in the fill, the primary silts containing some animal bone. The ditch certainly predates the rampart but its course is uncertain (it was not picked up by the geophysical survey). It is not certainly associated with the putative causewayed enclosure, and RCHME was able to find no additional evidence for the monument.
A rim sherd was recovered from the primary silt of the hillfort ditch, against the chalk bedrock. This was dated to the Early Iron Age by Dr Lisa Brown, and has been deposited with Bedford Museum.
For further details, see earthwork plan at 1:1000 scale and Level 3 client report, held in archive. (13)

The hillfort was re-surveyed by English Heritage in April 2003, following vandalism and subsequent excavation of part of the rampart and interior. See archive plan at 1:1000 scale. (20)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1960

( 2) General reference

Ordnance Survey Ancient Britain Map Index 1951

( 3) Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Smith WG. Maiden Bower, Bedfordshire XXVII (1915) Page(s)143-161

( 4) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 5a) The Antiquaries journal : journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Piggott S. The neolithic pottery of the British Isles 88 (1931) Page(s)67-159

( 5) South Bedfordshire Archaeological Society Bedfordshire archaeologist

Dyer JF. Maiden Bower near Dunstable 1 (part 1), 1955 Page(s)47-52

( 6) by A Hadrian Allcroft 1908 Earthwork of England : prehistoric, Roman, Saxon, Danish, Norman, and mediaeval

Page(s)99

(7) Field Investigators Comments

F1 PAS 19-JUN-1971

( 8) Journal of the Manshead Archaeological Society

Matthews CL. Archaeological Sites on the Totternhoe Ridge; p131 8 (1962) Page(s)119-134

( 9) by C L Matthews, for Manshead Archaeological Society of Dunstable 1976 Occupation sites on a Chiltern ridge : excavations at Puddlehill and sites near Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Part 1: Neolithic, Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

BAR British series1 (1974) - 29 (1976) Page(s)1-3, 160-2

(10) Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society

Palmer R. Interrupted Ditch Enclosures in Britain: the use of aerial photography for comparative studies; p185 42 (1976) Page(s)161-186

(11) Antiquity Publications Limited Antiquity

Wilson DR. Causewayed Camps and Interrupted Ditch Systems XLIX (1975) Page(s)178-186

(12) edited by J J Wymer and C J Bonsall 1977 Gazetteer of Mesolithic sites in England and Wales, with a gazetteer of Upper Palaeolithic sites in England and Wales

CBA research reportsVol.1 (1955)- 20 (1977) Page(s)2

(13) Field Investigators Comments

RCHME: Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic: Maiden Bower Survey

(13a) Journal of the Manshead Archaeological Society

Hamilton MA and Pollard CJ. Maiden Bower, Bedfordshire: interim report on survey work, October 1991. 32 (1992) Page(s)24-31

(14) General reference

Smith WG. 1894. Man the Primeval Savage: his haunts and relics from the hill-tops of Bedfordshire to Blackwall. London, Edward Stanford.

(15) Antiquity Publications Limited Antiquity

Curwen EC. Neolithic Camps. 4 Page(s)22-54

(16) by James Dyer 1981 Hillforts of England and Wales

Shire archaeology [series] 16

(17) Journal of the Manshead Archaeological Society

Horne B. Will the real Neolithic please stand up? 36, 1996 Page(s)22-39

(18) Scheduled Monument Notification

11-JUL-1997

(19) by Joshua Pollard, Michael Hamilton 1994 Recent fieldwork at Maiden Bower

Bedfordshire archaeologyvol 16 (1983) -

(20) Field Investigators Comments

English Heritage: Maiden Bower Archaeological survey plan

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MAIDEN BOWER CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURE
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A Neolithic causewayed enclosure masked by the later Iron Age hillfort of Maiden Bower. Features which appear to suggest the presence of a Neolithic c...

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