| Summary : Berth Hill, a multivallate contour hill fort situated on a prominent sandstone outcrop. The enclosed area measures 320.0m NW-SE by 150.0m transversely and is bounded by a rampart of earth and much stone, parts 15.0m in width, internally up to 0.8m in height, which on the south and east sides merges into the steep natural slopes of the hill. To the north, where the slopes lessen somewhat and the outside ground rises to a broad ridge, there is an outer rampart, 10.0m in width, 1.0m in height, beyond a medial ditch, 10.0m in width, 0.5m maximum depth. There are two original entrances, in the east and south sides,the latter being pronouncedly inturned. A water supply was provided by a strong spring which still flows from within the east rampart. The upper slopes of the hill, below the inner rampart, have at some time been cut about for the provision of ornamental 'walks', whilst, more recently, the interior, formerly wood, has been reafforested with fir trees. |
More information : (SJ 787390) Berth Hill (NR) (1)
Except for a slight incline rising in a north west direction the summit of the fort is flat. A 5 ft high rampart encloses it. The main entrance is on the south and is an example which by itself dates to work to Early Iron Age. Another entrance is on the north west extremity. Twenty feet down the hill is a ditch with an outer rampart; this was staked in parts and the post holes for a palisade were quite distinct. There were never more than two ramparts (except by the north west entrance, where a hidden trackway leads up into a maze with no direct access to the summit) as the hill sides are quite precipitous. Within the topmost rampart, by the promontory on the south west, the rampart curves inward to enclose a sunken area, and near the promontory on the south east the 1875 Ordnance map shows a large rectangular depression which rather suggests a pit dwelling. This however was not traced.
The central piece of the summit is slightly elevated to within 10 ft or more of the encircling rampart. The fall is about 1 ft. It this is a lynchet then the central piece of the summit was cultivated and the lower encircling ground within the rampart occupied with dwellings. It is said that the summit has been ploughed and iron objects found, but no details are known (2). "The extreme length within the inner vallum is 355 yds and the extreme width 225 yds; the acreage is 9" (3). "A long trench located in February on Maer Hills would seem to complete the Iron Age citadel there which an authority says, 'Illustrates the whole social economy of a prehistoric settlement', as this site combines a stronghold, camp, cattle sorting corral and enclosed cultivation areas" (4).
(2-4)
Bryth or Berth Hill - Included in 'A list of Hill-forts with inturned entrances'. (5)
'This fortress is culled the Bruff, corruptly from Burgh'. (6)
There is 'a fortress at Bruff in Staffordshire'. (Quoting Authy 6). (7)
Berth Hill: A contour hill-fort situated on a prominent sandstone outcrop. The general description by Auth 1 is accurate: no evidence of the 'rectangular depression' was seen. Apart from minor mutilations and some 'slip', the earthwork is in good condition; heavily wooded. (8)
Recent work on Berth Hill has revealed the following:
Period I, Phase 1. A timber-laced rampart with ditch and counterscarp bank was constructed round the top perimeter of the hill. Small fragments of pottery recofvered cannot be precisely dated, but have affinities with Iron Age A.
Phase 2. The boxed ramparts were widened laterally to form a platform for superimposed ramparts built by glacis methord. There was no time interval between phases 1 and 2.
Period II. Defences disused for a considerable time: ditches silted, parts of the rampart fell into them and were covered with debris and silt.
Period III. Hurried reconstruction. Massive ramparts constructed on the north side and ditches re-cut. Little improvement was made on south side, possibly because of lack of time, but gaps left in the ramparts becuase of collapse in Period II were blocked with stones.
Period IV. Defences again disused. No dating evidence as yet as to whether the fort was taken by storm. The period may possibly be assigned to the mid 1st century AD. (9)
Berth Hill, a univallate contour hill fort situated on a prominent sandstone outcrop. The enclosed area measures 320.0m NW-SE by 150.0m transversely and is bounded by a rampart of earth and much stone, parts 15.0m in width, internally up to 0.8m in height, which on the south and east sides merges into the steep natural slopes of the hill. To the north, where the slopes lessen somewhat and the outside ground rises to a broad ridge, there is an outer rampart, 10.0m in width, 1.0m in height, beyond a medial ditch, 10.0m in width, 0.5m maximum depth. There are two original entrances, in the east and south sides,the latter being pronouncedly inturned. A water supply was provided by a strong spring which still flows from within the east rampart. The upper slopes of the hill, below the inner rampart, have at some time been cut about for the provision of ornamental 'walks', whilst, more recently, the interior, formerly wood, has been reafforested with fir trees.
Published 1:2500 survey revised. (10)
Listed by Challis and Harding as an Iron Age hillfort, 9 acres, with timber laced rampart beneath dumped ramparts. (11)
(SJ 7879 3905) Berth Hill (NAT) Hill Fort (NR) (12)
Excavation took place in 1975 at the junction of the northern and western ditches. The primary ditch was V-shaped, 2m deep and 3m wide, cut into the rock but not continued. The trenches located the vertical face where the work terminated without continuing round the northern side. There was rapid silting of the ditch and in the second phase it was partly filled-in and the counterscarp bank extended both vertically and horizontally. Stakes were driven into the courterscarp bank and on top of the normal second phase silt was a thick layer of sandstone boulders, suggesting that the defences had been slighted. The only possible indication of a third phase of construction was the further, lateral extension of the counterscarp bank. No dating evidence was found. (13)
SK 786 390. Maer. Berth Hill camp scheduled no. 8 and listed under Camps and Settlements. (14)
SK 788 391. Berth Hill, Maer. Listed in gazetteer as a multivallate hillfort covering 3.6ha. (15)
The hillfort, centred at SJ 7876 3905, was surveyed at 1:1000 by RCHME in 1989. The hillfort is considerably more complex than has generally been recognised to date. It is defended by at least two major ramparts around most of its circuit, and around its weaker north and north-eastern sides in fact has three lines of defence. Contrary to Hogg (auth 15) the internal plan area of the fort is almost exactly 4.0ha. Twin ramparts run along the southern side of the hill overlooking the modern A51 road. Both have been formed by a redefinition of the natural hill slope: the inner by a combination of cutting back into and building out over the hillside; the outer purely by a process of dumping. A terrace of varying width has been left in between. A low discontinuous bank runs along the outer lip of this terrace resulting in the illusion of a ditch where present, and it is this bank which seems previously to have been recognized and labelled as a counterscarp (auth 9, 11) to the exclusion of the quite massive rampart on which it sits whose base is distinguishable as a break in slope on the hillside beneath. The inner rampart on this stretch of hillside is a very complex structure with evidence of multi-phasing in several places. It is of composite construction with up to three stages visible, each offset slightly from the one below giving the outer face in places a marked stepped appearance. Excavation suggests that this top stage is of late date, and of dump construction overlying earlier box ramparts (auths 9, 11).
Around the south-west promontory and west side of the hill, the outer rampart seems to have been built in a number of stages also, although here this staging is not necessarily indicative of multi-phasing but may at least in part be a constructional device to prevent the rampart slipping down the very steep hillside. A second ditch and third rampart commence at the north-west corner of the fort and run away east. However, just past the north-west corner the inner terrace/ditch and what has now become the middle rampart fade out, and there is a steep unbroken fall down from the base of the inner rampart (distinguishable as a break in slope) to the bottom of the new (second) ditch. This fall appears natural. The inner ditch and middle rampart recommence at the fort's north-east corner and together with the second ditch and third rampart continue round to a point half-way down the east side. All the ramparts in this sector of the defences are heavily broken and defaced by what appear to be ornamental garden walks, as mentioned by auth 10. Past the north-east corner the lower slopes of the hill are very much gentler, and the fenceline around the base of the hill marking the boundary with the modern agricultural landscape pulls inside the outer defences to run along the bottom of the middle rampart. Although presently pasture, it is evident that the field in which these defences lie has been ploughed in the past, with the result that the outer ditch and rampart here are very smoothed down and difficult to differentiate from the underlying natural hillside.
Half-way down the east side of the fort the profile of the hill changes again and becomes very much steeper and higher once more. The two outermost ramparts terminate on a natural gully marking this change. For at least 100m after this only the inner rampart seems to be present. A number of stages or offsets are once more visible in its face, but this section of the defences has been substantially damaged by terracing for an aqueduct leading from a spring inside the north-east corner of the fort down to Maer Hall and village, constructed by Josiah Wedgwood when he lived at the Hall in the early nineteenth century (auth 2). What appears to be an ornamental garden walk runs at the base of the rampart and may be traced continuing round the side of the hill as far as the present gate giving access off the A51 opposite the Lodge. However, from a point almost level with the cistern on the line of the aqueduct what appears to be another 'path' (but is in fact the end of the medial ditch between the twin ramparts along the south side of the hill) branches away uphill.
The hillfort has entrances in the south and east as described by auth 10; the north-west entrance claimed by auth 2 and the approaches up to it are all late. The southern entrance is inturned and is reached by an elaborately engineered approach up the steep south-west slopes of the hill which is both excavated into the hill and embanked across a natural, deep re-entrant gully: this engineering appears original. The entrance is also now approached by a track from the gate on the A51, but this cuts through the line of the outer rampart and then utilizes a short stretch of the ditch en route to the entrance, and is clearly late. The north-east entrance is far simpler; it is not inturned although there is evidence for one of its terminals being thickened out in to a club end. It may have passed out of use at a late stage, for there is little evidence of an original approach up to it through the outermost rampart which may itself be quite late in the hillfort's sequence therefore, but post medieval quarrying and recent forestry activity and associated access has badly damaged this part of the site.
The interior is presently afforested with conifer plantation. Much of the defences and hillside are covered by nineteenth century ornamental trees or by later birch scrub and self-seeded conifer.
Full RCHME survey information, including a detailed report, is available in the NMR Archive. (16)
Multivallate hillfort at Berth Hill. Scheduled - RSM No. 21569. (17) |