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OAKMERE CAMP

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DESCRIPTION

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An Iron Age promontory fort or univallate hillfort, surviving as an earthwork.

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SJ 57606780 Camp (NR) (1)

A promontory camp at Oakmere which is defined by a deep, irregular ditch lying between degraded ramparts, cutting off the ground falling to the eastern shore of Oakmere. (2)

Published 1:2500 survey revised. See illustration card. (3)

Survey of 1961 checked and still correct. (4)

Further reference and plan. (5)

A small Iron Age settlement situated upon a low headland, jutting into the NE side of Oak Mere. A rampart across the E side is 15.0m in width, 1.2m in height internally, 1.5m externally; the outer ditch is up to 15.0m in width and 1.2m in depth. At the southern end is a simple original entrance, and midway is a modern causewayed entrance. There are no traces of internal structures. On the N and SW the site is bounded by natural slopes along the former shore-line of the now-reduced lake.
Published 1:2500 survey, 1970 correct. (For a similar work - see SJ 55 NW 7). (6)

Listed by Challis and Harding as a promontory site enclosure, of 2.5 acres, under hillforts (Iron Age). (7)

Oakmere (SJ 576 678) 1.4 ha. Listed under late prehistoric enclosures. A promontory of glacial outwash sands and gravel protrudes from the eastern bank of Oakmere. The surrounding area is relatively low-lying, though gently undulating, and the landward approach is level. A single bank with external ditch describes an arc across the neck of the promontory. The bank no longer meets the water's edge at its northern extremity; the deficiency may be explained by the presence of a scarp dropping to the mere at that point and continuing around the promontory approximately along the 76m contour. The water level in the mere may well have been higher in the past, so completing the defences. Approximately midway along its length the ditch has been interrupted by a causeway, and the adjacent bank is broken at that point. Those have been thought to be modern disturbances effecting entrance to the site, and it is believed that the original entrance way was in the south, in the short gap between the rampart terminal and the crest of the scarp down to the shore. The ditch itself has been irregularly dug, although both bank and ditch are reasonably well preserved, the bank standing to c.2m in places. A section of the bank taken in 1960 showed it to be composed of earth, with no evidence of a stone revetment. The site is at present under grass, with tree cover around the periphery of the promontory and gorse on the ramparts'. (8)

The Iron Age promontory fort lies at 76m above OD, and consists of a single rampart and ditch. No contemporary internal features are present; slight platforms in the interior are probably to do with 19th century use of the site as a horse-racing compound. Entrance arrangements are unclear, but possibly comprisae a simple gap in the defences close to the lake shore. A central break appears later, and may be associated with the 19th century race course to the east. The site was surveyed by RCHME at 1:1000 scale; see plans and descriptive text in NMR. (9)

SJ 576 678. Oakmere. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 0.9ha. (10)

SJ 5760 6783. Oakmere promontory fort on the east bank of Oakmere 300m NW of Corner Farm. Scheduled RSM No 25688. (11)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1954

( 2) Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society

1936 (W J Varley) 51 Page(s)52

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 TPW 12-OCT-61

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F2 JHW 24-JUN-64

( 5) Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society

1962 (J Forde-Johnston) 72 Page(s)21-3

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F3 ASP 12-MAR-76

( 7) by A J Challis and D W Harding 1975 Later prehistory from the Trent to the Tyne

BAR British series1 (1974) - 20(i-ii) Page(s)47

( 8) edited by B.E. Harris; assisted by A.T. Thacker 1987 A history of the county of Chester : volume I : physique, prehistory, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Domesday

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)113

( 9) General reference

Robert Wilson-North/01-APR-1987/OS Revision Cheshire

(10) by A H A Hogg 1979 British hillforts : an index

BAR British series1 (1974) - 62 Page(s)154

(11) General reference

English Heritage Scheduling Amendment 7/8/95

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