The trees have gone from the low square building, but the grasses were high and the tunnel that so perplexed my last trip here was possibly hidden beneath much chopped wood. Drat.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Images
Information board.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
The newly recreated eastern entrance, barely three years old and it’s already falling apart.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Eric sits in the north entrance and ponders his lot in life.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Looking north-ish to the lesser preserved part of the fort.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Looking just east of north to the best preserved part of the fort.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Not sure what this is, entry to some forbidden underworld, probably.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Looking out the recreated entrance.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Not sure how those people got past us but they are inspecting the renewed entrance.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
The fort on it’s hill as seen from Delamere railway station.
Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image credit: chris bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Image credit: christopher bickerton
Articles
THE Habitats and Hillforts project has been staging a four week archaeological dig at Eddisbury Hill Iron Age Hillfort.
The intention is to re-excavate trenches through the ramparts and one of the entrances that were originally opened up between 1936 and 1938 in order to expose the sections and recover charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating.
Details at iccheshireonline:
Access was easy but i was unsure whether i was trespassing ,there was barbed wire all around it although a small lane led straight into it.in the south-east corner was what seemed like the outline of a building and some strange tunnel ,just big enough to crawl through ,my gut feeling was it was not iron age ,maybe medieval.The hill forts entrance is quite big and the ditch and bank at least 8ft tall ,the view is wonderful the whole of Delamere forest and in the distance the cooling towers of Merseyside(ugh again)
About the year 900 [..], Ethelfleda built a town called Eddisbury, in the very heart or “chamber” of the forest, which soon became populous and famous for the happy life led by its inhabitants. Though all vestige of this once happy town has now disappeared, yet its name remains, and its site in the chamber of the forest can still be pointed out.
And certainly a finer site the Lady Ethelfleda could not have chosen. It was placed on a gentle rising ground in the centre of the forest, overlooking finely wooded vales and eminences on every side. A little brook rippled past through a small valley, and the old Roman road wound its way round the eminence on which the town was built.
This antique Saxon lady seems to have had a strange passion for building, as we are told she not only built this town, but that she also built fortresses at Bramsbury, Bridgenorth, Tamworth and Stafford, and most probably would have built many more had she not died at Tamworth in 922.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=sN0wjxyotFwC&pg=PA214
From ‘English Forests and Forest Trees’ (1853). Information about Ethelfleda largely comes from a short Anglo Saxon document called the ‘Mercian Register’ which covers the years 902-24.
Sites within 20km of Eddisbury
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Gallowsclough Cob
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Kelsborrow Castle
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Seven Lows
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High Billinge
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Woodhouse Hill
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Helsby Hill
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Robin Hood’s Tump
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Beeston Crag
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Peckforton Mere
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Dropping Stone Cave
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Mad Allen’s Hole
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Maiden Castle (Bickerton)
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