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"Maiden Castle is a defended settlement (probably home to a family group) of the 1st millennium BC. It would have been located within or near to arable fields. The enclosure is circular, has a diameter of about 65 metre and is defenced by an inner rampart, ditch and counterscarp bank. The ditchs and the banks, which may have been topped by wooden fences, would have been much more substantial to provide protection against attackers.
A few very low earthwork features are visible in the interior of the enclosure including two circular platforms of about eight meters diameter which may indicate the positions of circular huts, These are likely to have been of timber construction, with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs." From a sign by the earthwork.
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Fearby in North Yorkshire has a couple of interesting features. A field called standing stones and, very close to this is a hil called How Hill. Fisher, in his "History of Mashamshire" c.1850 remarks that circles of upright stones existed close to Healey, and goes on at some length about Healey Baal, and the possibility of this being related to the god Baal.
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"There are three fields behind Fearby called "Standing Stones"(1), and although there are no traces now it is possible that this may have been the site of one of these temples (comparing to Thornborough). Mr Fisher in his History of Mashamshire of 1865 talks of circles of upright stones having recently existed near to Healey." - Susan Cunliffe Lister - Days of Yore, 1978.
(1) Fieldnames of Mashamshire 1800
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The Slei Gill vein at Booze has a large number of interesting mineworkings, some of which are ancient, many of the later works covering other earlier workings.
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Penshaw Hill seems to be one of those fantastic hill forts completely missed by historians because of a later addition - A mock greek temple. Penshaw appears to be one of the few classic triple rampart Iron Age hill forts known to exist in the north. In terms of magic, it has a similar feel to Almondbury, with dates from the Bronze Age to the mid Iron Age. To add to its mystique, an apparent saucer barrow sits unnoticed at the foot of the hill, within the outer enclosure.
In 1844, before most antiquaries were interested in local pre-history worm hill, the regions greatest hill fort was 'converted' into a folly in the form of a Greek temple, to John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham (1792 - 1840). Governor - General of Canada, Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons, Member of Parliament, one time Lord Privy Seal, landowner and coal owner. Erected in 1844 by private subscription, its design by the Greens of Newcastle was executed by Thomas Pratt of Sunderland. The monument comprises Greek Doric columns (4 by 7) with entabulatures and end pediments but no roof. The columns stand upon a solid stone platform.
As a consequence, all the earthworks associated with the hill were assumed to be related to the monument and little attention was paid to the significance of this ancient site. Even the OS map of 1864, published twenty years after the erection of the monument, notes the earthworks simply as 'old quaries'
The area marked as Painshaw Hill Quarry has indeed been fully quarried out, however a crop mark to the West may still elude to the orginal outer bank of this enormous hill fort - one of the largest hill fort in the north yet totally unrecorded.
The photo's show the earthworks and an additional feature - a possible Barrow.
For full details visit my website
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This site was occupied in several periods, originally late Bronze age between 700 - 500BC. Firstly a simple farmstead which expanded to a blockhouse (fort) and then by a huge circular brock. A population of around 60 lived in this little fortress. Later, 2nd century occupation is shown when a wheelhouse was added.
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