Summary

Hillfort, presumably Iron Age.

Identification Images (4)

Monument Types

Description

Top of hill defended by the use of a single ditch and rampart (described as double ramparts with a medial ditch reduced to a long lynchet-like scarp with terrace at its foot on OS card of 1972). This is pronounced at the SW and less so around the rest of the perimeter which runs along the top of very steep slopes. At the SW end the inner rampart stands 6m above the base of the outer ditch which itself is up to 2m in depth. There are now no traces of an outer rampart if one ever existed. There appears to have been one original entrance, which is where the modern road runs, in the south eastern corner. The fort encloses 15 ha. And is 800m SW-NE and 330m transversely. The fort is a promontory fort, the NE end being the termination of the chalk ridge. Across part of the inner area to the east of the hotel are traces of a ditch visible as a greener strip of grass. It appears to be approx 8m wide and 0.1m deep. There is an account of 'unsurveyable traces of a ploughed down bank on the W lip of the ditch'. This feature could mark the line of an earlier enclosure which was later enlarged to its present size. The earlier enclosure surrounds the very top of the hill whereas the possibly later defences enclose an area lying downslope.

A large area of the hillofrt interior was ploughed in the 19th and 20th centuries and a large plough step is easily visible as an earthwork within the enclosed area running east -west from near the hotel. The rampart on the northern side of the hillfort is very narrow and low with a steep internal edge suggesting the limit of ploughing. This ploughing clearly cut into the bank and severely degraded it. Rabbits and people erosion are gradually wearing away these oversteepened edges.

Inside the hillfort there are various features relating to the Victorian amusement park and later wartime activity within the hillfort. These will be described under further SMR numbers as will individual finds etc found within the hillfort.
Archaeological Comments - Site:121330*0 This hillfort has not had any systemmatic excavation therefore the details as to its function and even dating are not known. A well thought out research excavation could address these points as well as others such as environmental evidence, particularly pre-monument, activity before the Iron Age etc.

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken at Devil’s Dyke Hillfort, Poynings,
West Sussex during intrusive groundworks associated with proposed car park alterations.
Archaeological monitoring of groundworks did not definitively identify any archaeological deposits on the site, though this is considered to reflect both truncation associated with the construction of the existing road and car parks and the limited size of many of the excavations monitored. Monitoring of excavations to the south of the present hotel, however, did identify an area of artificially raised ground that appears to preserve the pre-existing ground surface. Here is it considered that any archaeological features present are likely to survive, but this area was not further investigated in order to preserve any such features in situ. [SNA64421]

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