The Warbanks are an archaeological site comprising irregular earthworks that straddle the A134 in the Suffolk parishes of Lawshall, Cockfield and Shimpling. [1]
The Warbanks are an archaeological site comprising irregular earthworks that straddle the A134 in the Suffolk parishes of Lawshall, Cockfield and Shimpling. [1]
The Warbanks are ancient defensive ditches that are situated on the eastern parish boundary of Lawshall and extend into the neighbouring parishes of Cockfield and Shimpling. They are of very ancient origin and comprise long ramparts and ditches crossed by a Roman road (now the A134) running between Alpheton and Bradfield Combust, just north of Thorn Corner. It was formerly a single defensive system but there are now three parts, the Lawshall section being the most prominent. Dense timber on either flank on the flat heavy boulder clay along with the ramparts of the Warbanks would have made this a notable military post. [1]
The Warbanks were certainly pre-Roman and may have been an earlier defence system. A late Bronze Age sword (now in the Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds) was found on the site of the Warbanks and has been dated as 800-600BC and could give a clue to the age of the banks. [2]
A small bronze bust of a woman was found within the earthworks. [1] The hair of the woman is plaited in twelve twists and fastened on the top of the head with a bow and there is also the bronze handle of a knife or mirror with a crowned female head at the end. Neothlithic implements have also been found in the Warbanks. [3]
Suffolk County Council's Archaeological Service have identified the following:
1581: Section (b) named Le Barowe.
1834/4: Tithe Map: Section named as War Bank (wood).
1842: Named as War Bank on Tithe Map of Lawshall.
1978: The area was still being ploughed with the Warbanks just visible.
1998: Whole area of the Warbanks east of the A134 was metal detected with negative results. [4]
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill and consists of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. Hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC, and were used in many Celtic areas of central and western Europe until the Roman conquest.
Devil's Dyke or Devil's Ditch is a linear earthen barrier, thought to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, in eastern Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. It runs for 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) in an almost straight line from Reach to Woodditton, with a 10-metre-high (33 ft) ditch and bank system facing southwestwards, blocking the open chalkland between the marshy fens to the north and the formerly wooded hills to the south. It is a Scheduled Monument, a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different functions.
Alpheton is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located on the A134 road about six miles north of Sudbury, in 2005 it had a population of 260, reducing to 256 at the 2011 Census. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is the homestead of Aelfled.
Cockfield is a village and civil parish located approximately 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) from Lavenham in Suffolk, England. The village consists of a central point and several outlying hamlets: Buttons Green, Colchester Green, Cross Green, Great Green, Oldhall Green, Smithwood Green and Windsor Green. Surrounded mostly by fields used for farming, and with few roads, its population was 839 in 2001, increasing to 868 at the 2011 Census.
Shimpling is a village and civil parish in south Suffolk, England. About 7 miles (11 km) from Bury St Edmunds, it is part of Babergh district. The village is formed from two halves, the newer Shimpling Street and about 2 miles (3 km) away the old village of Shimpling. The village has a Church of England parish church, where supermodel Claudia Schiffer and film producer Matthew Vaughn were married on 25 May 2002.
Embury Beacon is the site of an Iron Age promontory fort on the west of the Hartland Peninsula, north of Bude and west of Clovelly, in north Devon. The fort has almost entirely been lost to coastal erosion, but a fraction of the eastern ramparts still exist at approximately 150 metres (490 ft) above Sea Level. It is part of the National Trust property of Bideford Bay and Hartland, which also includes two other hill forts at Windbury Head and Bucks Mills earthworks. The site’s name suggests it was the location of a beacon, possibly during the Elizabethan period, but there is no archaeological evidence of this.
Lawshall is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Located around a mile off the A134 between Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, it is part of Babergh district. The parish has nine settlements comprising the three main settlements of The Street, Lambs Lane and Bury Road along with the six small hamlets of Audley End, Hanningfield Green, Harrow Green, Hart's Green, Hibb's Green and Lawshall Green.
Bran Ditch or Heydon Ditch is generally assumed to be an Anglo-Saxon earthwork in southern Cambridgeshire, England.
Black Ditches is an earthwork close to the village of Cavenham of Suffolk, and part of it is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The earthwork is 4.5 miles long between the River Lark at Lackford and the Icknield Way. It is described by the Suffolk Historic Environment Record as having no direct dating evidence but "by analogy with other linear earthworks in the region it is usually assumed to be post Roman".
Cholesbury Camp is a large and well-preserved Iron Age hill fort on the northern edge of the village of Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is roughly oval-shaped and covers an area, including ramparts, of 15 acres (6.1 ha), and measures approximately 310 m (1,020 ft) north-east to south-west by 230 m (750 ft) north-west to south-east. The interior is a fairly level plateau which has been in agricultural use since the medieval period. The hill fort is now a scheduled ancient monument.
Lawshall Green is a hamlet in the civil parish of Lawshall in the Babergh district in the county of Suffolk, England. It is located east of Hibb's Green and is less than half a mile off the A134 between Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury.
Hanningfield Green, sometimes referred to as Hanningfields Green, is a hamlet in the civil parish of Lawshall in the Babergh district in the county of Suffolk, England. It is located between The Street and Hibb's Green and is just under a mile off the A134 between Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury.
Hart's Green is a hamlet in the civil parish of Lawshall in the Babergh District in the county of Suffolk, England. It is located between Stanningfield and Hanningfield Green and is just over a mile off the A134 between Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury. The road that serves Hart's Green is known as Donkey Lane.
Frithy and Chadacre Woods is a 28.7-hectare (71-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the parishes of Lawshall and Shimpling in Suffolk, England.
The Street is a linear settlement in the civil parish of Lawshall in the Babergh district in the county of Suffolk, England. It extends from Lawshall Hall in the west to Donkey Lane in the east. The settlement includes Swanfield, east of the Swan Public House and the small residential development of Hall Mead which is opposite All Saints Church.
Cornish promontory forts, commonly known in Cornwall as cliff castles, are coastal equivalents of the hill forts and Cornish "rounds" found on Cornish hilltops and slopes. Similar coastal forts are found on the north–west European seaboard, in Normandy, Brittany and around the coastlines of the British Isles, especially in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Many are known in southwest England, particularly in Cornwall and its neighbouring county, Devon. Two have been identified immediately west of Cornwall, in the Isles of Scilly.
Within the boundaries of Clare Parish lies what appears to be an ancient camp, an earthwork enclosure known variously as Erbury, Clare Camp or the Anglo-Roman fort, at the north end of the town, just to the west of Bridewell Street. The name Erbury is first seen in an inquest and land valuation in 1295, referring to a house, the land around it and a garden. This seemed to be part of the largest and most profitable pasture land in the area, lying outside the town and forming a part of Clare Manor. Erbury means 'earthen fort' from Old English. Bury is a common placename across Britain and refers to a fortified place: it turns up in various guises across Western Europe: borough, burgh, bourg, burg.
Castle Rings is a univallate hill fort in the parish of Donhead St Mary in Wiltshire in England. The fort is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, with a list entry identification number of 1005698. Castle Rings has been dated to the Iron Age and is situated at an altitude of 228 metres (748 ft) upon Upper Greensand sandstone beds. The main bulk of the fort enclosure lies within the boundaries of Donhead St Mary parish but some of the outlying earthworks are situated in the neighbouring Sedgehill and Semley parish. In the mid-1980s a metal detectorist unearthed a hoard of stater coins of the Durotriges tribe within the hill fort.
Caesar's Camp is an Iron Age hill fort straddling the border of the counties of Surrey and Hampshire in southern England. The fort straddles the borough of Waverley in Surrey and the borough of Rushmoor and the district of Hart, both in Hampshire. Caesar's Camp is a Scheduled Ancient Monument with a list entry identification number of 1007895. It lies approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) north of the town of Farnham, and a similar distance west of Aldershot. The hillfort lies entirely within the Bourley and Long Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest. Caesar's Camp is a multivallate hillfort, a fort with multiple defensive rings, occupying an irregular promontory, with an entrance on the south side. The site has been much disturbed by military activity, especially at the southeast corner. The remains of the hillfort are considered to be of national importance.