Iron Age Hill Forts Oxfordshire

 Blewburton Hill, Oxfordshire Rams Hill Causewayed Enclosure Segsbury Camp Uffington Castle

Iron Age Hill Forts Oxfordshire is in Iron Age Hill Forts.

Europe, British Isles, South-Central England, Oxfordshire, Blewburton Hill [Map]

Blewburton Hill, Oxfordshire [Map] is an univallate Iron Age hillfort in Oxfordshire.

An Iron Age settlement and hillfort. Excavations found the settlement to be palisaded and contained a number of pits and postholes. Finds including pottery was recovered. The hillfort was found to comprise two phases of occupation. Earlier occupation was indicated by a range of Neolithic and Bronze Age flint implements. An Anglo-Saxon cemetery was also recorded. It comprised 22 inhumation and one cremation burials . The majority of the burials were accompanied by grave goods which included brooches, buckles, knives, a spearhead, and glass and amber beads. The grave goods indicate an early Saxon date for the cemetery.

Excavation of the earthwork on Blewburton Hill by A.E.P.Collins in 1947-9, revealed an Iron Age 'A' settlement dating from circa 300 B.C., evidenced by much pottery, grain storage pits, post holes, and the trench of a timber palisade.

This was followed by the construction of typical bank and ditch hill-fort defences showing two periods of construction - 'AB' and 'B'. The bank had been fairly massive and the ditch measured 18-38 feet in width, being as little as 5 feet deep in the first period but reaching at least 15 feet in cutting J in the second period. The entrance on the southwest side was found to have a made causeway and the post-holes of double gates (cuttings H and J on plan; see AO/LP/63/61.)

Flints of Neolithic or Early Bronze Age type were found in the lower end of cutting G, and the blade of a polished stone axe in the ditch north of the entrance.

A small number of Roman sherds, (1st and 3rd-4th century) were found, but these may be considered strays the site being deserted during the Roman period.

Four Saxon burials were found in cuttings G and G1, and three more in cutting J. they may be part of a cemetery and are dated by Leeds as probably 5th century A.D. (2-3). Another Saxon burial was found just below the turf-crest of the hill-fort in July 1945. The associated grave goods: two bronze brooches (Leeds cross potent derivative group c) and nine glass beads are in the possession of Mrs.Mornington Higgs. (4-5)

Of the unusual terrace or lynchet-type features all that can be said is that they are definitely post Iron Age but that their function is still an open question. (2) (3) Scheduled (7) (2-8)

The bank and ditch of the hillfort defences do not exist as original features.

The rampart has been reduced to a negative lynchet which in the eastern half of the hillfort has been ploughed down and in part entirely destroyed. The course of the ditch is to some extent represented by a flat terrace in the western half but has been completely destroyed in the eastern half. Near the original entrance there are two short stretches of bank along the top of the upper lynchet and the lip of the terrace below but both may be the result of modern cultivation.

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Europe, British Isles, South-Central England, Oxfordshire, Uffington, Rams Hill Causewayed Enclosure [Map]

Rams Hill Causewayed Enclosure is also in South England Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures, .

1200BC. Rams Hill [Map] is a possible causewayed enclosure although the date 1200BC suggests an early Iron Age Hill Fort:

A multi‐period enclosure site on the Berkshire Downs of south Oxfordshire overlooking the Vale of the White Horse and the middle Thames Valley. Extensively excavated between 1972 and 1975 by Richard Bradley and Ann Ellison, the site has four main structural phases and is critical for understanding the early development of hillforts in southern Britain. The earliest phase dates to the early 12th century bc and comprised a stone‐faced dump rampart inside a chalk‐cut ditch that defined a roughly oval‐shaped enclosure of about 1 ha. There were probably two or three entrances. In phase 2, the late 12th century bc, a timber‐laced rampart was constructed to replace the earlier defences. In the third phase, around the beginning of the 10th century bc, a double palisade was built on top of the former, by this time mainly silted‐up, ditch. In the final phase, dated to the 7th century bc, a much larger enclosure of 3.5 ha was built around the hilltop in the style of early hillforts. R. Bradley and A. Ellison, 1975, Ram's Hill: a Bronze Age defended enclosure and its landscape. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports British Series 19

Europe, British Isles, South-Central England, Oxfordshire, Segsbury Camp [Map]

550BC. Segsbury Camp [Map] is a Multivallate Hill Fort with extensive ditch and ramparts and four gateways.

Uffington Castle

Uffington Castle [Map] is a Multivallate Hill Fort.

Colt Hoare 1812. Proceeding dong the line of the ridgeway, a high point of land, distinguished by strong ramparts, now attracts our attention: and on reaching the summit of the hill, we are gmatified by the appearance of a fine earthen-work of verdant turf uninjured by the plough, and affording from its ramparts a most interesting and it bears the the name of UFFINGTON CASTLE [Map] and is single comprehensive view ditched, having an entrance towards the south-west, and comprehending seven acres within its area. On the east side of this eminence is a very singular insulated knoll, which Mr. Wise, (page 46) denominates a barrow, undet the title of DRAGON HILL, and mentions some traditions concerning it, not worthy of our notice. I cannot consider this hill as entirely artificial, and thrown up like Silbury, but it appears to me that a part of the upper ridge has been cut away in order to form it. On the northern side of this hill, the rude figure of a horse has been traced in the chalk, from which circumstance an extensive valley running through Berkshire, has gained the appellation of the VALE WHITE HORSE.1 The Whitc horse was made use of the banner of the Saxons, and is described in the act of gallopping: it is supposed to have been cut on this hill in token of the signal victory gained by King Alfred over the Danes in the year 971.

Note 1. I conceive this to be the otiginal white horse its extreme rudeness. and incorrect outline seem to warrant this conjecture: there are others at Bratton, Calne, Marlborough, and Alton.