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England
Sutton WallsHillfort
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Visited on a drizzly January day (28.1.2010), approaching from the west (Moreton on Lugg). The surrounding countryside is very low-lying, the meadows around the Lugg are constantly flooded. The fort rises above all this, occupying the top of a long, low hill on an east-west axis. To the north-west, the horizon is dominated by the much larger Dinmore Camp. The fort has been ill-treated in the past, pretty much from when the Romans arrived and massacred the inhabitants onwards. It has been quarried and used to dump chemicals during the 20th century, none of which add much to the attraction. A footpath runs around the whole perimeter of the fort, outside the single defensive bank. Another bisects the fort about a third of the way along from its western tip. The bank itself is impressive from the outside, although there's not much sign of the ditch that originally encircled it. The rampart is highest on the north side and would have been a pretty formidable barrier, with ditch and pallisade. Undergrowth covers the rampart itself now, so a visit at this time of year is recommended. The gates at east and west ends are hidden under vegetation. To the SSW the views extend to The Skirrid and Black Mountains, while from the east end the central part of the Malverns range is visible. The interior is pretty much a flat and featureless open space. The site was heavily quarried and later filled after toxic waste had been dumped there. There's not a lot to see and will be even more obscured come the summer. It contains a large area (12ha), including a ploughed field at the eastern end. The eastern half is much wider than the west, following the natural contour of the hill. The bank is at its lowest around this bowed out section. Leaving via the footpath running south from the fort to Sutton St Michael, the natural slope is apparent. However, the hill is low and so defensive capability, particularly to the south, would not compare with the loftier hillforts in the area. From here it's off for a quick look at the Wergins Stone before heading into Hereford. |
Posted by thesweetcheat28th January 2010ce Edited 1st February 2010ce |
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Apparently from Howell's 'Collection of Proverbs' from 1659, but quoted in 'English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases' by W C Hazlitt (1907):Sutton Wall and Kenchester HillMaybe it's a misquote and should imply the two places were better than London in the past? as they both have big forts (Kenchester is next to Credenhill Park Wood fort) - rather like the rhymes that tell 'when [local old place] was a bustling town, [local big city] was a furzy down'. Maybe, maybe not. |
Posted by Rhiannon22nd April 2011ce Edited 22nd April 2011ce |
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A small bubble-burst regarding the Ethelbert story: "Around AD25, the ramparts were raised and the huts rebuilt on the same layout. Then, as Roman power extended into the area in the middle of the first century AD, a grisly episode in the history of the settlement occurred. As the Roman army advanced, the ditch at the western entrance was hurriedly recut. Immediately afterwards, many battle-scarred bodies -some of which were decapitated - were thrown into the ditch and covered with a layer of soil. It seems the Romans, under Ostorius Scapula, attacked the settlement, massacred the inhabitants and pulled down the defences over them. ..... Excavation has revealed no evidence of Saxon occupation to support the folk-tale that Sutton Walls was the site of one of Offa's palaces. The story of Ethelbert's bloody murder may represent a hazy folk-memory of of the actual slaughter which took place there many centuries earlier, though recent work has suggested that Offa may have had a palace at Freens Court, just below the ramparts of Sutton Walls*." From "Prehistoric Sites of Herefordshire" - George Children and George Nash (1994 Logaston Press). *On the 1:25000 OS at SO521458 there is a "moat" near Freens Court Farm, not sure if this is relevant. |
Posted by thesweetcheat 6th February 2009ce |
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A confusing tangled tale revolves around a bell here. Offa was supposed to have lived in Sutton Walls, or alternatively down in Marden below. As mentioned, there is a church on the spot where Offa murdered St. Ethelbert, and a few yards away, a pond. When the pond was being cleaned out, a bell was found, eighteen feet below the level of the adjacent ground. The Dean of Hereford said (in the 1840s) that the bell "was formed of a sheet of mixed metal, which had been hammered into shape: it is four-sided.. riveted together on each side.." The Herefordshire SMR says it was of iron and bronze, and calls it 'Celtic', but it is surely newer - and where is it now? He also said, "There is a tradition at Marden among the common people that there lies in the river Lugg, near the church, a large silver bell, which will never be taken out until two white oxen are attached to it, to draw it from the river." and elsewhere (eg at the Hereford Times ) there's talk of a mermaid - the oxen had a go pulling the bell out, but the mermaid dragged it back. It seems like one of those chicken-and-egg situations (like with the Mold cape) where you can't tell how much story there really was before the discovery. See the Archaeological Journal for 1848 (v5) p330 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XZ08AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA330 |
Posted by Rhiannon 26th January 2008ce Edited 26th January 2008ce |
About four miles north-eastward from Hereford, is Sutton Walls, celebrated as the Palace of Offa, King of the Mercians, where the unsuspecting Ethelbert was treacherously murdered..The Beauties of England, v6, by John Britton etc. (1805) |
Posted by Rhiannon 25th August 2007ce |
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