More information : SO 3536 7595: Castle Ditches Earthwork (NR).(1)
Castle Ditches. Quadrangular defensive enclosure 350 feet east to west and 230 feet north to south. The remains of the north side of the earthwork suggest it was bi-vallate. Plan.(2)
Castle Ditches, a probable Iron Age defensive enclosure, situated upon the south side of the top of an east to west ridge. Sub-rectangular in plan, with rounded corners, the enclosure measures 90 metres east to west by 50 metres transversely and is bounded on the north, weakest side, by double banks with a medial ditch and on the south where natural slopes fall away steeply, by a ditch with an outer bank. The double banks may have continued all around the enclosure but on the west side, only the inner bank remains and on the east side, only the outer bank. Through this side is the original entrance, causewayed across the ditch. The banks are nowhere more than 0.3 metres in height externally, nor stand over 1.2 metres from the foot of the ditch,
which averages 0.7 metres in depth. Both banks and ditch average 7 metres in width. The site is under pasture at the present time but has been much reduced and spread by ploughing.
The interior contains at least six hut platforms which have been ploughed over and are now under turf. They are scooped out from the south-east facing slope and average in size 12 metres by 8 metres. Published 1:2500 survey revised. (3)
SO 353 759: Castle Ditches earthwork at Bedstone Hill. Scheduled.(4-5)
The earthwork remains of this probable Iron Age sub-rectangular enclosure and associated hollow way were seen as earthworks and mapped from aerial photographs as part of the RCHME: Marches Uplands Mapping Project.
The enclosure was centred at SO 3535 7594, was defined by a single ditch and measured circa 60 metres x 100 metres. Within the enclosure one sub-circular depression with a diameter of circa 15 metres was seen in the western end at SO 3533 7594, possibly one of the hut platforms mentioned by the previous authorities.
Extending from the north west corner of the enclosure were the earthwork remains of a probable hollow way circa 240 metres in length.(6)
Remains of Castle Ditches, a small enclosed settlement of Iron Age or Romano British date, located on Bedstone Hill. The enclosure is quadrangular with an internal area of about 0.4 hectares containing a number of well defined building platforms. Earthworks within the interior have been reduced by 20th century ploughing and a road truncates the north east corner. Scheduled.(7) |