|
 Log in |
Register
|
|
|
Oldox CampHillfort
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
0 discussions
Show map (inline Google Map)
|
|
|
Images (click to view fullsize) |
 Add an image |
|
Fieldnotes |
Add fieldnotes |
|
In a part of the country which is thin on the ground in anything worth seeing,Oldox camp is a real gem.I went to find it on hearsay, without a map, and after a nice walk through some fields, it just appeared off to the right of the path.Very easy to find.There is an entrance directly facing the tumulus adjacent to the camp with some low but nicely pronounced ditches and earthworks.The walls get higher as you go further round the camp, and as you reach the entrance at the back, they are really impressive and built on quite a steep slope.It's not too overgrown with trees either.There is a small straight ridge running from the camp to the direction of the village of Oxton; it's only a few metres long, but I'd be interested to know if it's part of the camp or some later agricultural addition.The view from the top of the earthwork is something else.I've read that there were other settlements close to Oldox but I don't know where they were, and I don't think they exist anymore.There is a sunken lane running from the village towards the camp.Pretty and fascinating site. I found a prehistoric guide book written in 1960 which says," This hill-fort is roughly triangular and encloses 1.5 acres. Outside the NW entrance there is a barrow over 90ft across...Roman coins in a pot and a Saxon burial have been found here, but the mound is either a barrow of c. 1,700-1,400 BC or a natural hillock". Nicholas Thomas 'Guide to Prehistoric England' 1976 |
Posted by neogeek 5th September 2010ce Edited 22nd October 2010ce |
|
I can see this site from where I currently work and live, strange though how for months this hillside has taken my attentions so much!. I've stood and watched the sunrise over this place from where I work now many times. This place is easy to find, turn left of the A6097 onto Greaves Lane, youll see the footpath sign on the right hand side, several hundred yards up the lane, park on the side and you just follow the trackway turning righ as you come to the woods, its easy from there! First impressions... you can see for miles from here! What a vantage point!! To the west(ish) you can see what is supposedly known as Robin Hoods Pot, and down over to the southeast(ish) you can make out embankments and a ditch system which I would have interpreted as once being a small community under the shadow of this hillfort. Spend time here and it all comes together. Visions came to me as I stood here, I saw a curved trackway coming from the northwest side of the embankment making its way up to the mound called the 'Pot' and more in the surrounding landscape. Didn't enjoy standing on Robins Pot though, supposedly a burial mound, the feelings I picked up there ushered me along quickly! Wonderful enviroment though, somewhere to breathe deeply and lose yourself and find yourself!!.. ;) Must get myself a compass. |
Posted by paul197025th November 2004ce Edited 25th November 2004ce |
|
Access to the fort is easy enough. Just off the A6097 is a minor road, the footpath that leads up to the fort is well signposted from here, and there's room to get a car off the road. The fort encloses roughly a hectare. Entrances can be seen in the NorthWest and East. The forts defences are still in good nick, a triple bank and ditch to the East altho' this side is covered in trees, the size of the the defences is impressive, on the West a bank ditch and counterscarp. The site sits behind two large mounds, the one nearest the entrance, is called Robin Hoods Pot and at over 6m high is thought to be a barrow.( See Rhiannons post Robin Hood's Pot ) A top place. |
Posted by stubob30th April 2003ce Edited 30th April 2003ce |
Top of page