| Summary : A map of 1778-83 shows that the hillfort was known as Poor Man's Walls; the present name derives from the coombe to the east. Excavations have been small-scale and inconclusive: Neolithic flints and a human inhumation have been found. The hillfort may have been begun in the early Iron Age on the highest ground as a smaller enclosure, whose NE end is represented by a ploughed down rampart, and subsequently expanded to take in the entire promontory in the later Iron Age. However, the degraded earthwork may be a cross-ridge dyke whose relationship to the eventual hillfort is incidental. Similarly, the main cross-ridge rampart that forms the SW end of the hillfort could be an earlier cross-ridge dyke eventually incorporated into the circuit. The SW rampart appears to deflect around a broad platform, perhaps the site of a windmill or similar, which may represent the modified remains of a Bronze Age round barrow. Alternatively, this may be the site of a blocked entrance. The more evident entrance, which is shown on the 18th-century map and is used by the present road, appears to relate to the approach from the head of Devil's Dyke Coombe. Celtic fields occupy the slope to the north-east of the hillfort and appear to underlie the NE rampart, possibly extending through much of the interior (TQ 21 SE 103). Complex earthworks (TQ 21 SE 104) are visible in the pasture outside the main SW cross-ridge rampart; these certainly include at least three barrows, possible Romano-British settlement (the general area of the 'Celtic village' dug by Burstow and Wilson in the 1930s) and golf course earthworks. The hillfort became the site of an 'adventure park' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, centred on the hotel of around 1817 (see TQ 21 SE 105). A proving ground (bomb testing site) was constructed at the Dyke in 1918. During the Second World War, it became a 'defended locality' (TQ 21 SE 100), incorporating a building probably from the First World War (see TQ 21 SE 99). The hillfort is visible as earthworks on air photogrophs and lidar and was mapped as part of the Changing Chalk: Downs from Above Aerial Survey project.
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| More information : (TQ 26041109) Devil's Dyke Hill Fort (GT). (1)
TQ 260111: Devil's Dyke I A 'A' & 'B' univallate hill fort over
15 acres enclosed. (2)
The Devil's Dyke, a promontory fort the artificial defences of
which consist of a rampart bank and outer ditch most massive on
the SW. Weaker defences exist round the naturally steep sides.
(3). There was one original entrance, marked by the modern road
(5).
Digging has revealed no evidence of continued occupation. Ne
implements, (3) and a human skeleton, probably Saxon, found (5).
(TQ 25721087) Scheduled (7).
Published 1:2500 survey revised. (8)
Devils Dyke, IA fort, in size 800.0m SW-NE by 330.0m. transversely.
The defences lie along the flanks and NE termination of a
broad-backed chalk downland ridge, on the NW and SE sides
immediately above very steep natural slopes, and comprising double
ramparts with medial ditch, which have largely been reduced by
ploughing, soil creep and erosion to a long lynchet-like scarp
with terrace (silted ditch) at the foot.
Across the ridge of the SW end, the defences are much increased
in size, the inner rampart rising to 3.0m height internally and
standing 6.0m above the base of the outer ditch which is up to
2.0m in depth. There are now no traces if an outer rampart of
one ever existed. The Dyke Road passes through the original
entrance at the S corner of the fort.
Within the fort, extending from above the precipitous N slopes
at TQ 2606 1120 for c 160.0m SE to TQ 2613 1105, where it is cut
by a modern bank, are traces of a ditch, c 8.0m wide and 0.1m
deep, visible as a dark green strip of grass. It is distinct on APs.
Unsurveyable traces of a ploughed-down bank, c 8.0m wide and 0.1m
high, occur on the W lip of the ditch. It is possibly the remains
of an earlier rampart of a smaller fort, the N, S and W defences
being overlaid by the later defences as at Hollingbury (TQ 30 NW 12).
Published survey (25") revised. (9)
Described as a semi-contour site. The ditch in the south east
corner, where the natural slope is particularly steep, takes the form
of six or seven separate lengths with undug courseways between for a
distance of about 250 ft. (10)
Late in the hill fort sequence in Sussex, associated pottery from the
IA hut site (TQ 21 SE 2) suggests a date of 50 BC - AD 50, in
contrast to the `early' physical appearance of the fort. (11)
Most of the hillforts in Sussex can be securely dated to the early
Iron Age with the exception of the Devil's Dyke, which has never been
excavated. (12)
Scheduled (13)
On 6th November 2007, English Heritage's entire Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team carried out an extended field observation on Devil's Dyke hillfort and its environs as an exercise in the course of an annual team meeting (14).
Yeakell and Gardner's map of 1778-83 shows that the hillfort was known in the 18th century as Poor Man's Walls; the present name derives from the striking coombe to the east, which penetrates deep into the downland escarpment from the north. It has been suggested (Sources 11, 12) that the hillfort may have been begun, perhaps in the early Iron Age, on the highest ground as a smaller enclosure, whose north-east end is represented by a rampart now ploughed down to a maximum of 0.2m high (as noted by Source 9) and subsequently expanded to take in the entire promontory in the later Iron Age. This sequence can be questioned. The ploughed down earthwork does not return to the south-west at its southern end (contrary to the depiction on the Ordnance Survey First Edition 25-inch survey), hinting that it may have been a cross-ridge dyke whose relationship to the eventual hillfort may be essentially incidental. (The gap in this earthwork depicted on the First Edition does not appear to be original.) Similarly, the main cross-ridge rampart that forms the south-western end of the hillfort could represent an earlier cross-ridge dyke eventually incorporated into the circuit: the western end of the earthwork appears to be cut by the ditch that extends along the north-western side of the promontory, and the fragment outside the ditch to be overlain by the counterscarp. The rampart also appears to deflect around a broad platform, perhaps the site of a windmill or similar, which may represent the modified remains of a Bronze Age round barrow, since the rampart appears to deflect around this point. Alternatively, this may be the site of a blocked entrance. The more evident entrance, which is shown on Yeakell and Gardner's map and is used by the present road, appears to relate to the approach from the head of Devil's Dyke Coombe, whose level floor provides a natural route into the Downs.
Celtic fields occupy the slope to the north-east of the hillfort and appear to underlie the extended rampart, possibly extending through much of the interior (TQ 21 SE 103). Complex earthworks (TQ 21 SE 104) are visible in the pasture outside the main south-western cross-ridge rampart; these certainly include at least three barrows, possible Romano-British settlement (corresponding to the general area of the 'Celtic village' investigated by Burstow and Wilson in the 1930s) and golf course earthworks.
The hillfort became the site of an 'adventure park' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, centred on the hotel of around 1817 (see TQ 21 SE 105). During the Second World War, it became a 'defended locality' (TQ 21 SE 100), incorporating a pre-War building whose function remains uncertain (see TQ 21 SE 99). Other than the updating of the AMIE data, no record of the EH field observation was published and no measured survey was undertaken. (14)
The building noted as being of uncertain function in the observation above is argued in source 15 to be part of a proving ground established here towards the very end of the First World War. The proving ground was intended to test aerial bombs and their components. It was not completed until early November 1918. The scheme involved the construction of standard gauge trolley tracks each side of the valley dyke, across which cables were slung attached to bogies running on the tracks, bombs were then to be suspended from the cables and dropped into the valley of the dyke. Other features included magazines, bomb house, proof yard and an Observation dug out. (15)
In November of 2011, the author of the above article related that his research work has identified many features of the proving site on the ground, these include: the formerly unidentifed apapted Edwardian camera obscura, railway trackbeds, observation posts, inspection sheds, and damage to the valley floor. A detailed publication is forthcoming. (16)
The Iron Age hillfort earthworks are visible on air photographs and lidar. The extensive ramparts of the fort remain extant on the latest 2021 vertical photography and 2019 Environment Agency lidar. Little additional detail can be added to that written above, other than what remains of the eatrhworks have been heavily truncated in places by later activity - primarily Second World War weapons pits and features relating to the Late 19th/early 20th century fairground. Internally, the fort plateau appears to have undergone a great deal of improvement and levelling. (21)
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