Warham Camp

Last updated

Warham Camp
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Ramparts on the NW side of Warham Fort - geograph.org.uk - 1403867.jpg
The ramparts on the north-west side
Location Norfolk
Grid reference TF 943 408 [1]
InterestBiological
Area5.1 hectares (13 acres) [1]
Notification 1984 [1]
Location map Magic Map

Warham Camp is an Iron Age circular hill fort with a total diameter of 212 metres (232 yards) near Warham, south of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. It is a scheduled monument [2] dated to between 800BC and 43AD, [3] and a 5.1-hectare (13-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, [1] [4] located within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. [5] The University of East Anglia has described it as the best-preserved hill fort in Norfolk. [6] [7]

Contents

First built by the Iceni people centuries before the Roman conquest of Britain, the monument later housed a Roman blacksmith. A section of its bank was partially destroyed in the 18th century rerouting of the River Stiffkey. It has now been the subject of archaeological excavations spanning 90 years. [7]

This unimproved chalk grassland site is heavily grazed by rabbits and cattle. It has diverse herb species such as common rock-rose and squinancywort, and butterflies including the chalkhill blue. [8]

History

A precise chronology for the site has been difficult to make clear. The fort was originally built by the local Iceni people, dating centuries before the 1st century AD Roman conquest of Britain. Centuries after the conquest, and after the establishment of nearby towns such as Venta Icenorum, an out-of-town Roman blacksmith was set up in the monument's interior in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Following this, no evidence of medieval activity has been observed, apart from a ridge and furrow pattern which is likely from ploughing in the 19th century. [7]

The fort is now divided into two parts across the earthworks' south-western edge by a channel of the River Stiffkey, which was diverted into its present channel in the eighteenth century, potentially to improve the view from the nearby Warham Grove House. This destroyed a portion of the fort's outer bank. [2] [7]

Excavations

The site was excavated on a small scale in 1914 by Harold St George Gray, and another small-scale excavation was undertaken in 1959 by Rainbird Clarke for the Norfolk Research Committee. [2] [7] [9] The excavations found that the fort’s surrounding banks had once been crowned by a tall timber palisade, as well as a wooden platform to the rear, and unearthed pottery sherds which suggested Iron Age and Roman activity, the specifics of which are as yet unknown. [7] The 1959 excavation in particular also searched for dating services from under the fort's inner bank and fill of the outer ditch; [9] a section across the defences revealed details of the ramparts as well as the remains of a timber structure at the top of the inner bank. [10]

As part of the Later Prehistoric Norfolk Project which had also investigated Arminghall Henge, a second excavation led by archaeologists from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit and project director Andrew Hutcheson took place in Summer 2023 [7] as a community dig, involving pupils from the Synergy Multi-Academy Trust and 33 volunteers from the Restoration Trust. [3] This excavation, as well as digging 21 test-pits in the interior of the fort, focused on the area of earthworks that had been levelled in the 18th century; it found a cobbled surface under a section of the destroyed earthworks, as well as Roman objects from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD in the interior, including hobnails from boots and 12 Roman coins and evidence of a forge through large amounts of hammerscale. [7] The excavation was featured in BBC Two's Digging for Britain , presented by Alice Roberts. [3] At the same time, the Norfolk Rivers Trust was working to restore the river's natural meander and found a chalk platform that aligned with the fort. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maiden Castle, Dorset</span> Iron Age hill fort in Dorset, England

Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hillfort 1.6 mi (2.6 km) southwest of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durotriges</span> A celtic Iron Age tribe from Great Britain

The Durotriges were one of the Celtic tribes living in Britain prior to the Roman invasion. The tribe lived in modern Dorset, south Wiltshire, south Somerset and Devon east of the River Axe and the discovery of an Iron Age hoard in 2009 at Shalfleet, Isle of Wight gives evidence that they may also have lived in the western half of the island. After the Roman conquest, their main civitates, or settlement-centred administrative units, were Durnovaria and Lindinis. Their territory was bordered to the west by the Dumnonii; and to the east by the Belgae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danebury</span> Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England

Danebury is an Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England, about 19 kilometres (12 mi) north-west of Winchester. The site, covering 5 hectares, was excavated by Barry Cunliffe in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, and was important in developing the understanding of hillforts, as very few others have been so intensively excavated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grim's Ditch</span> Name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch earthworks

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonea Camp</span>

Stonea Camp is an Iron Age multivallate hill fort located at Stonea near March in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Situated on a gravel bank just 2 metres above sea-level, it is the lowest hill fort in Britain. Around 500 BC, when fortification is thought to have begun at this site, this "hill" would have provided a significant area of habitable land amidst the flooded marshes of the fens. The site exhibits at least two phases of development over several hundred years of settlement, with a D-shaped set of earth banks surrounded by a larger, more formal set of banks and ditches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uley Bury</span>

Uley Bury is the long, flat-topped hill just outside Uley, Gloucestershire, England. It is an impressive multi-vallate, scarp-edge Iron Age hill fort dating from around 300 B.C. Standing some 750 feet above sea level it has views over the Severn Vale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warham, Norfolk</span> Human settlement in England

Warham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated about 5 km (3.1 mi) inland from the north Norfolk coast, 5 km (3.1 mi) south-east of the town of Wells-next-the-Sea and 50 km (31 mi) north-west of the city of Norwich.

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolebury Warren</span> Hillfort in North Somerset

Dolebury Warren is a 90.6 hectares biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and ancient monument near the villages of Churchill and Rowberrow in North Somerset, part of South West England. It is owned by the National Trust, who acquired the freehold in 1983, and managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Neroche</span> Norman castle in Somerset, England

Castle Neroche is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle on the site of an earlier hill fort in the parish of Curland, near Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embury Beacon</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buckland Rings</span> Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England

Buckland Rings is the site of an Iron Age hill fort in the town of Lymington, Hampshire. Today, the mounds and dykes around the outside which once constituted its defences are still clearly visible, although the outer bank lies under the road on the west side, and on the south-east it is nearly ploughed-out. Excavations of the inner and middle ramparts in 1935 revealed that they were of wall-and-fill construction, retained at the front by upright timber beams and walls of cut and laid turf. The entrance, which lies on the east side, was also excavated revealing a long entrance passage and the postholes for a pair of stout gateposts. The site was bought by Hampshire County Council in 1989 to ensure its preservation, and it is open to the public from the A337 road onto which part of it faces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scratchbury Camp</span> Iron Age hillfort in Wiltshire, England

Scratchbury Camp is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort on Scratchbury Hill, overlooking the Wylye valley about 1 km northeast of the village of Norton Bavant in Wiltshire, England. The fort covers an area of 37 acres (15 ha) and occupies the summit of the hill on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with its four-sided shape largely following the natural contours of the hill.

Hillforts in Britain refers to the various hillforts within the island of Great Britain. Although the earliest such constructs fitting this description come from the Neolithic British Isles, with a few also dating to later Bronze Age Britain, British hillforts were primarily constructed during the British Iron Age. Some of these were apparently abandoned in the southern areas that were a part of Roman Britain, although at the same time, those areas of northern Britain that remained free from Roman occupation saw an increase in their construction. Some hillforts were reused in the Early Middle Ages, and in some rarer cases, into the Later Medieval period as well. By the early modern period, these had essentially all been abandoned, with many being excavated by archaeologists in the nineteenth century onward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caesar's Camp, Rushmoor and Waverley</span> Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holkham Camp</span>

Holkham Camp, or Holkham Fort, is an Iron Age fort in Norfolk, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of the village of Holkham. It is a scheduled monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cockthorpe Common, Stiffkey</span> Protected area in Norfolk, England

Cockthorpe Common, Stiffkey is a 7.1-hectare (18-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. It is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stiffkey Valley</span> Site of Special Scientific Interest in Norfolk, England

Stiffkey Valley is a 44.4-hectare (110-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. It is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wells Chalk Pit</span>

Wells Chalk Pit is a 4-hectare (9.9-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the eastern outskirts of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. It is a Geological Conservation Review site, and it is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margidunum</span> Roman settlement in Nottinghamshire

Margidunum was a Roman settlement on the Fosse Way at Castle Hill near present-day Bingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Designated Sites View: Warham Camp". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Warham Camp small multivallate fort (1018015)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Prickett, Katy (9 January 2024). "Digging for Britain: Iron Age Warham Camp to feature on BBC show". BBC News . Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  4. "Map of Warham Camp". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  5. "Norfolk Coast AONB Management Plan 2014-19: Other Conservation Designations within the AONB" (PDF). Norfolk Coast AONB. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  6. Warham Camp, Landscape History, University of East Anglia. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Warham Camp: Investigating an Iron Age enigma". The Past. 1 February 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  8. "Warham Camp citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  9. 1 2 Wade-Martins, Peter (2017). A Life in Norfolk's Archaeology Archaeology in an Arable Landscape. Oxford: Archaeopress (published 3 November 2017). ISBN   9781784916589.
  10. Gregory, Tony; Gurney, David (1986). "Excavations at Thornham, Warham, Wighton and Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolk". East Anglian Archaeology (30).

52°55′49″N0°53′25″E / 52.9302°N 0.8903°E / 52.9302; 0.8903