Blacker’s Hill

Nearest town:
Midsomer Norton (6km NNE)
OS reference:
ST636498
OS sheet:
183
Latitude:
51° 14' 44.35 N
Longitude:
2° 31' 17.59 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Blacker’s Hill (Hillfort) by juamei

Open Source Environment agency LIDAR

Image credit: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.
juamei
juamei Jan 4, 2016

Articles

Folklore

Blacker’s Hill
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 22, 2005

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?

Miscellaneous

Blacker’s Hill
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 22, 2005

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.

Sites within 20km of Blacker’s Hill

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