More information : (SJ 40870555) Fort (NR) (1)
A small oval enclosure situated on a spur of Pontesford Hill
between the 500 foot and 600 foot contours. The ground falls
away steeply to the west, north and east, and rises to the south
towards the main fortress of Earl's Hill (SJ 40 SW 1). The most
noticeable feature of this earthwork is the contrast between the
area of the interior and the area occupied by the defences. The
area enclosed is about 3/4 of an acre, but the overall area of the
site is about 2 3/4 acres, so that the defensive works occupy
about 2 acres. The defensive system seems to have consisted of
an inner rampart, a berm, an outer rampart, an outer ditch and
a counterscarp bank, although at no one point are all these
features preserved together. The defences on the eastern side
have been largely destroyed by a forestry road. The entrance is
at the southern end, facing the steep northern slope of the upper
part of the hill.
Further ditches and banks were made on the comparatively flat
southern approach near the entrance.
Forde-Johnston suggests that this is a satellite hillfort, built
as part of the defensive system of the main hillfort (SJ 40 SW 1),
and contemporary with part of it. It had a purely military
function, and is comparable with several other hillforts including
the Breiddin (SJ 21 SE 3), Llanmelin, Monmouthshire (ST 49 SE 1),
and Carn Goch, Carmarthenshire. (2-3)
The emergency excavation on this multivallate hillfort examined
the counterscarp rampart, close to the entrance, of which part had
been destroyed by road building. There was evidence of three pre-
rampart phases of occupation outside the fort, the earliest
associated with Neolithic flint implements, the other two with
probable hut floors. There were widely-spaced post-holes of a
palisade along the counterscarp rampart in the final phase. The
flints included a large scraper of the type found in the earliest
levels at Windmill Hill. Although there were no closely dateable
finds, the fort can be assigned to the Late Iron Age. (4-5)
The hillfort is as described by Forde-Johnston.
Resurveyed at 1:2500. (6-7)
A small but strong Iron Age fort, situated upon the end of a forested,north-east-pointing spur, at 550 ft above OD.
The fort is oval in plan, and measures internally, 80.0m north-east
to south-west, by 44.0m transversely. The defences comprise two
ramparts, largely reduced to outward-facing scarps, the inner
from (1.8 to 2.8m in height, the outer from) 2.0 to 4.5m in height.
Traces of a medial ditch, 7.0m wide, and up to 0.3m deep, exist on
the west and north-east sides. The outer rampart has been destroyed
on the south by a forestry road. On the weaker, west side is a
third, outer rampart, 9.0m wide, in height 2.0m externally, 0.3m
internally, with an inner ditch 6.0m wide and 0.3m deep. Both
rampart and ditch terminate at the original south-west entrance,
which is marked by an inturning, for 10.0m, of the inner rampart
scarp. The fort is under pasture. There are no traces of settlement
within, and the outworks to the south-west, portrayed by Cobbold
(3) are no longer traceable within afforested land.
Survey of 10 6 71 still correct. (8)
SJ 409 055. Pontesford Hill. Listed in gazetteer as a multivallate hillfort covering 0.28ha. (9)
SJ 408 055. Pontesford Hill camp. Scheduled. (10)
SJ 40860555. As described. During the post medieval period,the hillfort and surrounding area was subdivided by a network of woodland boundary banks. A low bank cuts across the southern part of the outer defences and may originally have connected with the more prominent boundary bank which runs across the hillfort. Scheduled. (11)
The outer ramparts of the hillfort are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and have been mapped by RCHME's Marches Uplands Mapping Project. (12) |