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Hillfort
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I've also seen this refered to as Bury Wood Camp, and locals often call it 'Bury Ditch'. This was an important hill fort of the Iron Age. Excavations under Dr Grant King explored it from 1959 onwards, and some of the finest Iron Age drystone walling was apparently unearthed. The height of the ramparts were about 5ft 8".
In 1960 175 shards of pottery were recovered. All except one was plain coarse ware without a trace of decoration.
Just two fragments of human bones were found, whereas between 400 and 500 animal bone fragments were found. The vast majority were the usual domestic animals; sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, horses and dogs. Six specimens were of very large birds, probably swans or geese. Deer, fox, rabbit and vole bones were also spotted. The relative rarity of anything but domestic animals may suggest that the camp was based on stock keeping and that it was unlikely that hunting played a large part of the food economy of the camp.
'The History of Colerne' (1975 - no author) speculates that the camp may have been destroyed by the Second (Augusta) legion of the Roman army on their advance to Gloucester.
[NB- the Fosseway Roman road passes very close by - it's the yellow road to the West, if you look on the multimap link]
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Posted by pure joy
14th February 2003ce
Edited 14th February 2003ce
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