Bickerton Hill

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Bickerton Hill
Cheshire

Northern Bickerton Hill, showing Raw Head and Musket's Hole crags
Range: Mid Cheshire Ridge
Summit: 745 feet SJ508548
53°5’13"N, 2°42’50"W

Bickerton Hill refers to two low red sandstone hills that form the southern end of the Mid Cheshire Ridge in Cheshire. The high point, Raw Head, lies on the northerly hill and has an elevation of 745 feet. Parts of the southerly hill are also known as Larkton Hill.

There is evidence of settlement on the hills dating from the Neolithic or Bronze Age. The earthworks of an Iron Age hill fort, Maiden Castle, are to be found on the summit of the southerly hill; they are a Scheduled Monument.

The hills have been quarried and mined for copper since the 17th century, and a grade-II-listed engine house chimney remains as a remnant of the mining industry. Several caves occur in the sandstone, some of which have a history of habitation.

The Sandstone Trail, a long-distance footpath, runs along the ridge, and the area is popular with walkers.

Habitat

A large area of the southerly hill is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its biological importance; much of this hill is owned by the National Trust. Its summit plateau has an extensive area of lowland heath; a rare habitat in Cheshire away from the Peak District, and one that is particularly important for reptiles. A substantial population of Lobed Maidenhair Spleenwort, a fern that is rare in Britain, is found here. Nationally scarce species observed in the area include the bleached pug and alder kitten moths, and the Malthus frontalis species of soldier beetle. The western escarpment of the northerly hill has also been designated an SSSI for its exposed Triassic sandstones.

History

Neolithic and Bronze Age

Cropmarks near Rawhead Farm suggest a possible neolithic or Bronze Age settlement on the northern hill, which is of the "banjo enclosure" type, consisting of a circular enclosure with a narrow enclosed entrance.[1] Two flint artefacts have been found on the southern hill: a leaf-shaped flint of unknown date and a Bronze Age arrowhead.[2][3] A Bronze Age burial mound of the bowl barrow type is located on top of an unnamed knoll immediately to the east of the southerly Bickerton Hill (SJ51055269).[4][5]

Rampart of Maiden Castle

Maiden Castle

Main article: Maiden Castle, Cheshire

The remains of an Iron Age promontory hill fort, Maiden Castle, are located on the southernmost summit of the southerly hill at an elevation of 696 feets.[6][7]

Maiden Castle dates from around 600 BC and is the most southerly of the seven hill forts in Cheshire.[6][8] The double line of earth ramparts are still visible, forming a semicircle that encloses an area of 1.3 acres adjacent to the cliff edge. The enclosure has a single entrance at the east side with inturned defensive banks. Archaeological investigations have shown that both ramparts are strengthened by dry stone walling; the inner rampart also has timber strapping.[6][7] The fort was destroyed by fire in around 400 BC, although the area was probably used as a settlement until the Roman invasion of Britain in the 1st century AD.[6]

The site is well preserved despite quarrying of the area during the 17th to early 20th centuries, as well as military training exercises during the 20th century.[6][9] The remaining earthworks have been designated a Scheduled Monument, and the site is owned by the National Trust.[7] Since 2009, the trust has been removing trees, scrub and bracken from the site, as the roots damage the earthworks.[9][10] Animal burrows are another threat, and footpath erosion from visitors is also a problem, as the Sandstone Trail cuts across the earthworks.[9]

Early Middle Ages

The name "Bickerton" is Old English in origin, and relates to bees.[11] A township was recorded in the Domesday Book, which was found "waste", or devastated, at the time of the survey, in common with many nearby townships.[12] This is usually considered to be a consequence of the 'Harrying of the North'; a vicious campaign of suppression in 1069–70.[13][14] The township included half a league (about ¾ mile) of woodland, perhaps located on the hills.[15]

Copper mine chimney

17th–19th century

Copper mining at Bickerton was first recorded in 1696. The mine was owned by the Egerton family of Oulton, with eight miners being employed between 1696 and 1698. There were six shafts, one of which was deepened to 156 feet in 1807.[16][17] The mines were worked intermittently until 1906.[18] A rare remnant of this local industry is a disused mine engine house chimney in red sandstone, which stands by the A534 at the foot of the northerly hill near Gallantry Bank. The flue of a pumping engine that was used to drain the mine, it dates from the early 19th century and is a grade-II-listed building.[16][17]

The remains of adjacent mining buildings were still standing in around 1920.[16] The Copper Mine public house at nearby Broxton displays mining equipment and pictures.[16][19]

Quarrying also took place at various sites on the hills, including Maiden Castle from the 17th century.[6][9][16] Sandstone was extracted for building, and sand for use as a scouring agent.[16] An iron rock-splitting wedge dating from the 17th century was found during excavations of Maiden Castle.[6]

Mad Allen's Hole

Mad Allen's Hole, a cave on the southerly Bickerton Hill, is believed by some to be the location of "Allenscomb's Cave" in which John Harris, "the English Hermit", lived for 46 years in the 18th century. According to a pamphlet of 1809, Harris was a man of property from Handley, who embraced a hermit's life when his parents refused him permission to marry the woman of his choice. He first inhabited a cave in nearby Carden Park, moving to Allenscomb's Cave in the 1760s.[20][21]

Recent research has, however, cast doubt on the identification of Mad Allen's Hole with Allenscomb's Cave. Unlike the cave in Carden Park, no material dating to the 18th century has been discovered at Bickerton, and the name "Mad Allen's Hole" originated in the late 19th century, when the cave was occupied by an eccentric known as Mad Allen.[20]

In the early 19th century, the Bloody Bones caves on the northerly hill were occupied by brigands, who terrorised the surrounding countryside, stealing cheese from local farms and plundering graves, as well as selling sand for cleaning. Seven were captured and executed in around 1834.[22][23]

Droppingstone Well

The Droppingstone Well, immediately north of the Raw Head summit, bears a plaque dated 1861. A photograph of 1910 shows the well in use by locals.[24]

20th–21st century

The area around Maiden Castle was used for military training exercises during the 20th century, which included digging numerous two-man slit trenches.[6][9] The heathland of the southerly hill went unmanaged from the 1940s until 1983, when 163 acres of land were acquired by the National Trust; the trust's holding was extended by 126 acres in 1991.[25] Much of the southerly hill and the western escarpment of the northerly hill were notified as two separate Sites of Special Scientific Interest in 1979.

The Sandstone Trail long-distance footpath opened in 1974; it then started in Duckington, immediately south of the southerly hill.[26] The Sandstone Trail Race was launched three years later.[27]

A proposal in 2008 to construct a wind-monitoring mast 197 feet high adjacent to Bickerton Hill met with local protest,[28][29] and was rejected by the Council.[30]

Geography, geology and climate

Sketch map of the two Bickerton Hills

The two Bickerton Hills lie south-west of the Peckforton Hills. They form the southern end and high point of the Mid Cheshire Ridge, which runs broadly north–south through Cheshire from Beacon Hill near Frodsham. The southern part of the ridge, including both Bickerton Hills, has been designated an Area of Special County Value.[31] The ridge line continues north–south over the northerly Bickerton Hill, turning approximately 30° to the west over the southerly hill. The two hills are separated by a valley through which the A534 runs. The nearest settlements are (anti-clockwise from the south) Duckington, Brown Knowl, Fuller's Moor, Harthill, Bulkeley, Gallantry Bank and Bickerton.[32]

The summit of the northerly hill, Raw Head (SJ508548), has an elevation of 745 feet[32] and is the highest point on the Mid Cheshire Ridge. The high point bears a trig point.

The summit plateau of the southerly hill has two high points, at Maiden Castle (696 feet, SJ501534) and the Kitty Stone (633 feet, SJ497527). The southern (Maiden Castle) high point is sometimes referred to as Larkton Hill; this name is also sometimes used to refer to the southeast of the hill, which partly falls within the Parish of Larkton.

Southern Bickerton Hill from Cuckoo Rock

The ridge is formed from a sandstone outcrop of the Sherwood Sandstone Group, dating from the Early Triassic period around 250 million years ago. The sandstones are exposed forming extensive crags on the west flank of the northerly hill, as well as in smaller areas of the southerly hill. There are several natural caves. The two-storey cave known as Mad Allen's Hole (on the southerly hill at SJ503536) has an entrance partially blocked by boulders and is accessible via a circular hole at the rear.[20] The Queen's Parlour, a large triple-chambered cave directly under the Raw Head trig point, might be partially quarried.[33][34]

The steeply sloping west flank of the northerly hill is clothed with conifer plantation and mixed woodland, which is managed for pheasant shooting.[32][35] The summit plateau and gently sloping east flank have a mixture of pasture, arable land and plantation.[32] The soils of the southerly hill are acidic and predominantly nutrient poor, with brown sands on the ridge, and leached podzolic soils as well as brown earths at lower elevations. It supports a mixture of heath and largely deciduous woodland, with some pasture fields.

Bilberry-clad heathland on the southern hill summit

Recreational use, access and facilities

The area is popular with recreational walkers and dog walkers. The Sandstone Trail, a long-distance footpath between Frodsham and Whitchurch, runs over the top of the two hills, and there are several other public footpaths and a network of waymarked permissive paths.[36] A total of 8500 walkers on the Sandstone Trail were recorded by the National Trust between January and March 2006, and the trust has estimated that 8000 dog walks occur annually within the Bickerton Hill SSSI.[28] The longer of the two Sandstone Trail Races, organised by Deeside Orienteering Club in early October, goes over the two hills, starting from Duckington and following part of the Sandstone Trail.[37]

Limited access by public road is available to the northerly hill: Coppermine Lane climbs from the A534 to the east of the summit plateau, and New Lane runs from Harthill under the Raw Head ridge to Droppingstone Farm. Goldford Lane, Old Coach Road, Hall Lane, Brown Knowl Lane and Reading Room Lane run around the southerly hill; Sandy Lane runs from Brown Knowl to the edge of the Cuckoo Rock area.[32] Two free car parks, at SJ503530 (Pool Lane, off Goldford Lane, near Bickerton) and SJ494525 (off Old Coach Road, near Duckington), are open during daylight hours.[32] A small additional parking area for the disabled is located off Goldford Lane (SJ501526); it requires advance permission. An easy-access footpath suitable for people of limited mobility runs from this parking area to Maiden Castle.[38][39] The majority of paths have wicket gates or kissing gates, but there are some stiles.[39]

There is no access off the marked paths. There are no bridleways; cycling is prohibited and horse riding requires a permit on the land owned by the National Trust. Camping and overnight parking are prohibited. Interpretation includes National Trust information boards in the two car parks, Sandstone Trail information boards at multiple points along the trail, and several interpretative signs.[39]

Outside links

References

  1. ↑ Revealing Cheshire's Past: Rawhead Farm. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  2. ↑ Revealing Cheshire's Past: Prehistoric findspot in Bickerton. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  3. ↑ Revealing Cheshire's Past: Prehistoric findspot in Bickerton. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  4. ↑ Revealing Cheshire's Past: Bowl barrow 140m east of Long Lane. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  5. ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 873503 – Bowl Barrow
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Revealing Cheshire's Past: Maiden Castle promontory fort on Bickerton Hill 700m W Hill Farm. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 National Monuments Record: No. 68844 – Maiden Castle
  8. ↑ Forde-Johnston J. (1962) The Iron Age Hillforts of Lancashire and Cheshire. Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society 72: 9–46
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Habitats and Hillforts: Archaeological management issues: Maiden Castle. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  10. ↑ English Heritage: Heritage at Risk Register 2009. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  11. ↑ Phillips & Phillips, p. 24
  12. ↑ Husain, pp. 12–13
  13. ↑ Phillips & Phillips, p. 28
  14. ↑ Husain, pp. 9–13
  15. ↑ Husain p. 26
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Bawn et al., p. 10
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 National Heritage List 1330096: Sandstone chimney to former Copper Mine
  18. ↑ Revealing Cheshire's Past: Bickerton Hill Copper Mines. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  19. ↑ Cheshire Federation of Women's Institutes. The Cheshire Village Book, p. 43 (Countryside Books & CFWI; 1990) (ISBN 1-85306-075-5)
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Sinclair AGM, Matthews KJ (1999). The English Hermit. Cave Archaeology and Palaeontology Research Archive 1. Retrieved 24 April 2010
  21. ↑ Bawn et al., pp. 6–7
  22. ↑ Bawn et al., pp. 7–8
  23. ↑ Latham FA (ed.), The Local History Group. Tattenhall: The History of a Cheshire Village, p. 35 (The Local History Group; 1977)
  24. ↑ Cheshire County Council: Notice south of Raw Head summit
  25. ↑ National Trust: National Trust Acquisition Data (version 1.0; November 2009), pp. 157, 158. Retrieved 24 April 2010
  26. ↑ Cheshire East Council & Cheshire West and Chester Council: The Sandstone Trail. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  27. ↑ Deeside Orienteering Club: The History of the Sandstone Trail Race. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Anon. Fight against blot on the landscape. Crewe and Nantwich Guardian (16 January 2008). Retrieved 11 February 2008
  29. ↑ Thompson A. Protests mount over wind mast plan. Crewe and Nantwich Guardian (30 January 2008). Retrieved 11 February 2008
  30. ↑ Ellams B. Wind farm blown away. Chester Chronicle (8 February 2008). Retrieved 11 February 2008
  31. ↑ East Council & Cheshire West and Chester Council: Interactive Mapping: Beeston/Peckforton/Bolesworth/Bickerton Hills Area of Special County Value. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 Ordnance Survey: Explorer Map 257: Crewe & Nantwich: Whitchurch & Tattenhall
  33. ↑ Revealing Cheshire's Past: Queen's Parlour, Raw Head. Retrieved 28 April 2010
  34. ↑ Cheshire County Council: A Good Yarn But You'll Need A Torch (30 May 2006). Retrieved 28 April 2010
  35. ↑ Natural England: Raw Head: Condition of SSSI units. Retrieved 24 April 2010
  36. ↑ Cheshire County Council: The Sandstone Trail. Retrieved 7 March 2008
  37. ↑ Deeside Orienteering Club: The Route of the Sandstone Trail Race. Retrieved 24 April 2010
  38. ↑ SREP eNews (October 2007) (downloaded from [1]; 24 April 2010)
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 Habitats and Hillforts: Discovering Programme. Retrieved 28 April 2010
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