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Miscellaneous

King’s Castle
Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork

Details of earthwork on Pastscape

[Centred ST 0967 2820] CAMP [G.T.] (1) King’s Castle, Castle Hill, Wiveliscombe, an earthwork occupying nearly all the hill, much mutilated and defaced by quarrying on a large scale. Except for the central area, which is arable land, the remainder is considerably wooded. There was probably an inner rampart originally, several feet in height above the central area; below this a considerable scarp followed by a ditch and bank and a second scarp below.
Much-weathered human bones were found in 1914, lying on the rampart slopes and ditch by the late C.A. Lovegrove – (Somerset
County Mus. Acc. No. A704-6) and also at another time a red sandstone spindle whorl was found while ploughing (illustrated)
(2) [For plan see Illustrations Card] Multivallate Hill fort (4). (2-4)
This appears to be a univallate hillfort. Only at the southern end have the defences, a rampart with outer ditch and counter
scarp bank – survived major mutilation by quarrying. Here there is a well preserved staggered entrance.
Re-surveyed at 1:2500 Many Neolithic flints, including arrowheads, borers, scrapers, cores, blades, and a knife; were found on the surface of the hillfort in 1950 and 1952 by W.A. Seaby. They are in Taunton Museum. (5)
ST 097 282. Castle Hill, Wiveliscombe. Listed in gazetteer as a multivallate hillfort covering 4.0ha. (6)

Miscellaneous

King’s Castle
Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork

The scheduled monument record describes King’s Castle as a ‘defended enclosure’ – a much rarer creature than the similar age Hill Forts. It’s much smaller and may have only been occupied by a single family. (that’d be the King’s then). Today the area is wooded and is managed as a nature reserve by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. A stone that stood at its foot is now at Wells Museum.

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