Rams Hill Type Bronze Age Enclosure; Roman Fortified Site; Anglo-Saxon Cemetery, Highdown Hill

Summary

A late Bronze Age settlement on Highdown Hill was overlaid by an Iron Age univallate hillfort. The Iron Age hillfort was refortified c.270 to 300AD and was later used as a burial ground for more than 150 individuals in the 5th and 6th centuries AD and then a WWII radar station.

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Monument Types

Description

Highdown Hill has a late Bronze Age settlement site of circular huts enclosed with bank that potentially overlaid earlier Barrows. Evidence for Iron Age Activity on the site and Roman finds that might be related to structures within the enclosure or the Bath House to the west. A bronze socketed dagger was found by Lane Fox in his pit No.6, and a late Bronze Age hoard was excavated between 1895-1900 by Henty. The enclosure became the focus of a Anglo Saxon burial ground dating to the C5th and 6th. The cemetary was found during tree planting in 1892 and 86 graves were excavated further excavation took place in 1988 following storm damage to the trees.

Later uses of the site for a post mill from the C12th and then a WWII radar station have further impacted on earlier archaeological evidence and left their mark on the hill.

A further study of previously published material suggests that the Iron Age hillfort may have replaced a Bronze Age enclosure on the same site.

Highdown Hill is a palimpsest of activity from Bronze Age through to the modern day and all phases have left visible evidence that can be unpicked on the hill top today.

The monument includes a Ram's Hill type enclosure, a later, Anglo-Saxon mixed-rite cemetery and associated remains, including a medieval post mill, situated on an isolated chalk hill which rises above the West Sussex coastal plain c.4km south of the main ridge of the Sussex Downs. The Ram's Hill type enclosure, which dates to the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC), is a roughly east-west aligned, raised sub-oval area of c.1ha, the southern part of which is bounded by a bank up to c.0.5m high and c.8m wide, surrounded by a c.10m wide ditch. To the north, where the ground falls away steeply, the defences survive as a simple scarp. The southern ramparts are flanked by a second, smaller bank, which has been interpreted as an original feature, although its profile has been altered by long term ploughing. Arable cultivation has also partly disturbed the western ramparts. Access to the interior was by way of a c.8m wide gateway through the southern ramparts. Investigations of the enclosure during the 19th and 20th centuries indicated that its defences were remodelled at least once during the later prehistoric period. Traces of contemporary buildings and substantial amounts of pottery fragments and other artefacts were also revealed within the defended area, providing evidence for intensive use during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Fragments of Romano-British pottery sherds found within the enclosure suggest that it was also reused after the Roman invasion of AD 43. The Anglo-Saxon cemetery, which includes both cremation and inhumation burials, is centred within the earlier enclosure. Over 150 burials have been discovered, and analysis of the accompanying grave goods, or artefacts deposited with the bodies, has indicated that the cemetery was in use during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Buried foundations of contemporary structures, interpreted as buildings associated with the cemetery, have been found within the south eastern sector of the monument. The later medieval post mill survives as a circular mound c.14m in diameter and up to c.0.5m high, and is sited in the south western sector of the earlier enclosure. Historical records and cartographic evidence suggest that a windmill was first constructed on the hill during the late 12th century. The post mill fell into disuse and was dismantled during the mid-19th century. During World War II the monument was used as the site of a now demolished radar station, the construction of which partly disturbed the interior and ramparts of the earlier enclosure. Nineteenth century tree planting has also caused some damage to the central part of the monument. The eastern edge of the enclosure was destroyed by an 18th or 19th century chalk extraction pit


Sources
(1) Bibliographic reference: Aldsworth FG. 1975. TQ00SE1.
(2) Bibliographic reference: Lane Fox AM. 1869. Archaeologia. 42:74-6
(3) Excavation archive: Wilson AE. 1940. Report on the excavations on Highdown Hill, Sussex, August 1939.
Sussex Arch Colls. 81:167-203
(4) Excavation archive: Wilson AE. 1950. Excavations on Highdown Hill,1947. Sussex Arch Colls. 89:163-178
(5) Bibliographic reference: Allen IM, Britton D & Coghlan MM. 1970. Metallurgical Reports onBritish and Irish BA
Imps and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers. 216-218 No 111
(6) Bibliographic reference: Bradley R. 1971. 11-12:15-16:19-21
(7) Bibliographic reference: Aldsworth FG. 1976. TQ00SE1.
(8) Bibliographic reference: 1997. EH Revised Scheduling. Ref:MPP23/ AA 50839/
(9) Bibliographic reference: Irving GV. 1857. JBAA. 13:289-9
(10) Bibliographic reference: Read CH. 1899-1901. Proc Soc Antiqs. 2nd series:18:386-8
(11) Bibliographic reference: Curwen EC. 1954. 186:219-30:297
(12) Bibliographic reference: Mills J. 1996. 14-10-96

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