Remains of an Iron Age enclosed settlement, field system and possible hillfort, and a Romano-British enclosed settlement.
ginger tt
Iron Age Banjo Enclosure
An Iron Age hillfort
Promontory fort discovered in 1954. Single eastern bank and ditch – very spread and 80ft wide, across neck of promontory. It has a causewayed entrance.
Sub-rectangular hillfort enclosing c1.75ha. The monument is in an area of intensive Prehistoric and Romano-British activity, including field systems, a trackway/boundary feature and a barrow
The remains of a large hillfort once defended by a triple line of ramparts. A single rampart survives.
A probable hillfort (unfinished) including trackways and lynchets
Earthwork remains of an Iron Age univallate plateau hillfort
Earthwork remains of an Iron Age hillfort, with evidence for Roman occupation.
Earthwork remains of an Iron Age univallate hillfort and a Medieval motte and bailey which reused the former site
An univallate, nearly circular, Iron Age Hill-fort, about 5 acres in extent, situated on a low gravel-capped plateau. Most of the earthwork has been reduced by ploughing, the western part having been completely levelled although its course can still be traced.
Earthwork remains of an Iron Age promontory fort or hillfort.
Earthworks which are thought to be the remains of an Iron Age promontory fort or hillfort. Much damaged by gravel extraction.
Iron Age hillfort Dunwood Camp. Occupies the summit of a sandy hill. It has a single rampart but no definite indication of a ditch and it is possible that this earthwork was never completed.
Linear earthwork. One of several associated with a late Iron Age, precursor to the Roman town of Calleva. The earthwork is in Bridle’s Copse,.
Two Bronze Age bell barrows known locally and in early archaeological publications as ‘The Warrior Mounds’ or ‘The Warrior Barrows’ situated at SU 5196 8326. The barrow mounds both survive as upstanding stone and earth mounds measuring 23 metres in diameter and standing up to 2.5 metres high. The mounds were originally surrounded by gently sloping berms 5 metres wide which have been obscured by later ploughing. Beyond the bern edges lie quarry ditches from which material was obtained during the mounds’ construction. These have become infilled over the years but are known from earlier excavation and aerial photographs to survive as buried features 3 metres wide. Excavations carried out in 1848 and 1935 in the vicinity of the barrows produced finds from several periods including Iron Age and Roman pottery fragments, the cremated bones of a woman and child, a male skeleton, and Early Bronze Age dagger and an important selection of early Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery.
Source Pastscape
A tumulus near Pewit Farm, Lockinge, which is encroached upon
the south by the Ridgeway, was excavated by Stuart Piggott in
1938.
The barrow, more than half of which had been removed to within
a foot of the surface by the farmer, was found to be of
bell-type with the mound c. 44 ft. in diam. and the ditch c. 90
ft. in diameter.
Early-Middle Bronze Age sherds were found in the mound some
being of such a nature as to suggest that they were scooped-up
material from a hut floor or occupation site and not purely
funerary. There was a central oval grave, 5 by 3 by 3 feet
deep, which appears to have been plank-lined, and which
contained a cremation accompanied by a bronze awl and bronze
rivetted dagger which suggest transitional Early-Mid Bronze Age
date.
One of the many barrows locally to be found on the Ridgeway path. The barrow is the remains of a Bronze age bell barrow situated near to Pewitts farm above Wantage. It was excavated in 1938 and there were several finds dating it to the mid Bronze age.
Three round barrows situated in the south-west corner of
Woolley Downs, Chaddleworth, between the parish boundary and the
Hungerford-Wantage road, were excavated in 1933.
Barrows A and B were similar in construction, consisting of
deep circular ditches, seventy and ninety feet in diameter
respectively, the spoil being thrown up to form rings of rubble
inside.
No interments were found in A, but B. contained an empty pit
near the centre and an undated secondary cremation in the chalk
ring.
Finds from A and B included Romano-British pottery, and sherds
ranging throughout the Iron Age. Barrow C contained pottery
fragments of both these periods plus one beaker sherd and
several pieces of Early or Middle Bronze Age pottery. They may
have been erected as early as 400 B.C. but more likely about
the beginning of the Christian era.
Their purpose, which was not determined, may not have been
sepulchral. Associated occupation debris dates until the second
century AD.
[C.SU 3991 8046] Barrow C was quite different from A & B and
appears to be a Late Bronze Age “scraped-together” barrow. Two
empty pits were found beneath the barrow and a double
inhumation burial, possibly Saxon, across the ditch.
Also listed as Lower Coxwell Camp on the pastcape web site. Neolithic axe heads and flint scrapers have been found within the site and are kept in the Ashmolean museum.
Earthworks of an univallate Iron Age hillfort and attached annexe. Also Known as Green Wood fort
Lyneham camp is four miles from Chipping Norton, located 650 feet above sea level on a ridge commanding a fine view all round except to the north. It is roughly circular covering about four and a half acres. A single rampart surrounds the camp and is about five feet high in some places. There is a gap in the ramparts to the north – a possible original entrance. The camp was surrounded by a ditch, but this is barely visible now. A quarry has been cut into the south end.
Excavations were carried out by the Oxford University Archaeological Society in June 1956. Iron Age pot sherds and a bone needle were amongst the small number of finds. The camp is known locally as Lyneham ‘Roundabout’ and is a scheduled ancient monument. In the 19th century skeletons were discovered in the south side of the hillfort (the quarry site).
Records of Archaeological Work held by the Ashmolean Museum
This site, on the summit of Tynron Doon, is basically a multivallate Iron Age fort with an Early Medieval (Dark Age) and Medieval occupation. The final phases include a (?) 16th century tower-house and an 18th-19th century shepherd’s bothy.
The Iron Age structures must follow much the same basic plan as the present modified structure ie a central plot defended on the N,E and S by steep natural slopes. The W and NW approaches were defended by two main ramparts and three ditches; several of the ditches are rock-cut. Below the summit on the NE slopes there are prominent remains of a terrace cut into the slope; the terrace is defended by a small rampart but its use is unknown.
No details of the Dark Age occupation are available but presumably the Iron Age fort was merely utilised with few or no major changes. The occupation waste from this period lies below the large nettle patch on the SW slopes.
There is no positive evidence regarding structure changes on the site during the medieval period. It has been suggested that the hill-top might have been modified as a motte and the ditches re-cut some time around the late 12th or early 13th century in order to correspond with general practice elsewhere in the area.
The late medieval period is represented by the base plan of an L-shaped tower-house of (?) 16th century date, at the NW corner of the central plot. The remaining wall plan measures approximately 20 x 42 ft with an extension at the NW corner, 8 x 10 ft, which very probably represents the wheel-stair of the tower.
The structure was demolished some time around 1700-50. There are indications that the hill-top at this period was enclosed within a barmkin wall with a gateway at the SW corner of the tower.
Occupation during the 18th-19th century appears to be represented by a hut circle in the SE corner of the plot; this is very probably the remains of the shepherd’s bothy built when the tower was removed to build Tynron Kirk.
Artifacts found either in 1924, or when sections were cut in 1964-7, are in Dumfries Museum. They include fragments of a bracteate pendant, dating to the late 7th-8th century; blue glass beads, fragments of bloomery waste, and vitrification. (Finds are fully listed and described by J Williams 1971).
RCAHMS 1920, visited 1912; L Laing 1975; W Wilson 1957
From the Royal Commission on the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland Database