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Blacker's Hill

Hillfort

<b>Blacker's Hill</b>Posted by juameiImage © © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.
Nearest Town:Midsomer Norton (6km NNE)
OS Ref (GB):   ST636498 / Sheet: 183
Latitude:51° 14' 44.35" N
Longitude:   2° 31' 17.59" W

Added by Rhiannon


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<b>Blacker's Hill</b>Posted by juamei

Folklore

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Within the Camp, near the brow of the hill are 'Fairy Sleets', these, as the Rev. HH Winwood explained, are 'slits', narrow and shallow trenches formed when ore has been found by cutting through the rock to follow it out.
I found this in the 1904-08 volume of the Somersetshire Arch Soc Proc (Bath Branch). Perhaps someone knows more about to what it refers?
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
22nd June 2005ce

Miscellaneous

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Blacker's Hill is a promontory fort, protected by still impressive earthworks on the north and west, but otherwise defended by steep (and steepened) slopes. There are three entrances, but it's not clear how many of these are original - the fields have been changed about over the years and there's been some quarrying too. Perhaps there was just one to the NE. Springs and a stream run along the south of the fort, and there are various barrows nearby to the north. The site's been excavated and 'geophysed' - you can read about it and the nearby barrows
here at the Somerset Historic Environment Record. A 1950s excavation found traces of smelted iron in one of the ditches, and the geophysics detected several enclosures, linear boundaries, roundhouses and pits: different phases of the fort's use. Sounds like a busy community - something to think about if you choose to visit.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
22nd June 2005ce
Edited 22nd June 2005ce