More information : (SJ 8875 2120) Berry Ring (NR) (Site of British Station) (NAT)
(1)
Bury Ring; hillfort with only fragment of inner bank remaining,
see plan. The roadway to W is thought to be originally another
ditch. Area enclosed 7 acres. (2)
Berry or Bury Ring, a univallate IA fort occupying the northern
end of a ridge of glacial sand and gravel, measures, internally
250.0m N-S by 160.0m transversely.
The defences, overlooking gently sloping farmland comprise an
inner bank, a deep steep-sided ditch and a counter-scarp bank.
Of the inner bank, only traces can be seen in the pasture which
covers the interior of the fort and exceeds 0.2m in height only
in a short stretch to the E of the entrance where, for 40.0m it
attains a height of 1.5m.
The ditch averages 15.0m in width and is from 4.0m to 4.7m in
depth internally, rising from 2.0m to 2.7m to the counterscarp
bank. This bank, of which fragments only remain on the W, NW and
SE sides, is from 4.0m to 14.0m in width and from 0.5m to 1.0m in
height.
The original entrance, in the S end of the work, has been
mutilated and widened and is now 35.0m in width. On the W side, a
large irregular mound of earth is due to modern mutilation of the
inner bank. There is no certain evidence for an inturning of the
rampart. (A gap through the E side of the fort is modern).
There is a spring-fed pond in the NE corner of the interior.
The earthworks are wooded and in fair condition.
Published 1:2500 survey revised. (3)
Listed by Challis and Harding as a seven acre univallate contour
fort, badly damaged by ploughing (Iron Age). (4)
SJ 887 211. Berry Ring (Bury Ring). Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 3.0ha. (5)
The earthworks of this univallate hillfort, centred at SJ 8875 2120,
were surveyed by RCHME in 1989. They are much as described by
A Phillips (Authority 3). It has been suggested that the roadway to
the west of the fort represents an outer ditch (Authority 2), but
this seems unlikely since the only possible evidence for a second
entrenchment is at the north of the fort where a shallow exterior
ditch with a low bank; this lies on the line of a former hedgerow
and is not necessarily prehistoric. It is no longer possible to
determine whether or not the principal entrance to the fort was at
the south end as this is now covered by a bungalow and gardens. Both
the north-east and south-west corners of the fort have been
considerably disturbed by modern activities such as quarrying. Scarps
previously interpreted as an inner rampart could conceivably have
been formed by the use of the inner circuit as a farm track (6a), or
by the build-up soil during ploughing. A low interior bank down the
west side of the fort certainly post-dates recent quarrying and may
represent disturbance from top-soil removal.
Full RCHME survey information, including a detailed report, is
available in the NMR Archive. (6) |