More information : The possibility that scarps visible on the lower slopes of Castle Hill, Almondbury, represent the remains of ramparts forming an outwork to the Iron Age hillfort (SE 11 SE 1) and/or superimposed medieval castle (SE 11 SE 24) on top of the hill, was first suggested in print by WJ Varley in 1939 (1a). In 1946 he tested the theory by excavation, and opened a couple of small trenches (sites 8 and 8a) at the southern end of the hill near the steps up from Lumb Lane, where he thought the earthwork evidence was suggestive of the site of an entrance through the putative outworks. The results of these excavations have never been properly published, but a synthetic article Varley wrote a short while afterwards includes a single section drawing from site 8 showing a ditch flanked by two upcast banks, with a third bank a little downhill, and describes the features as part of a double circuit of outwork defences contemporary with the Iron Age fort (1b). Later articles confuse the picture by raising the possibility of the outworks being reworked in, or even belonging exclusively to, the medieval period, but contain no new data to substantiate the theories (1c, 1d). However, they do contain plans portraying the outwork circuits as earthworks - indicating that Varley believed that the scarps he had identified in 1939 indeed represented the continuation of the features found in excavation in site 8.
Subsequent commentators have accepted the outworks' existence as fact, and have limited their remarks to a reinterpretation and/or rephasing of the published evidence. Cunliffe has suggested that the outworks were not primarily defensive, but enclosed an area of protected pasture associated with the hillfort (1e). In contrast, Challis and Harding, whilst still viewing them as Iron Age, have reasserted their defensive nature by suggesting that references by Varley to wooden stakes found in the bottom of the ditch could be evidence for a chevaux-de-frise (1f). Latterly, Avery has preferred to see the outworks as exclusively medieval (1g).
The alleged outworks on the south-west side of the hill, including the sites of Varley's excavations, lie within the area of Scheduled Ancient Monument number West Yorkshire 58/RSM 13297 (1h).
The scarps shown on Varley's later plans, centred at SE 153 141, were surveyed by RCHME at 1:1250 scale in 1995. The survey found no evidence to support their interpretation as manmade outwork defences, suggesting instead that they are largely natural, most probably geological in origin. An exception to this is a slight linear depression which runs up the hillside through the area of Varley's site 8, and is most probably a medieval or later hollow way. Although not capable of proof from the published evidence, it is possible that this feature is the `ditch' on Varley's published section drawing. If so, the `banks' to either side, which Varley was presumably interpreting as defences above an inturned entrance passage, may be no more than simple upcast.
The majority of the course of the alleged outworks as shown by Varley, lies under rough grassland or improved pasture. The modern Castle Hill Side house overlies part of the course of the inner circuit. South of Lumb Lane the course of both circuits is now obscured beneath modern dumping.
Full details of the survey, including the plan, and a detailed earthwork account (1i), are contained in the full site survey archive in the NMR. (1) |