Crickley Hill
| Crickley Hill | |||
| Gloucestershire | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Crickley Hill from Barrow Wake | |||
| Range: | Cotswolds | ||
| Summit: | 876 feet SO927160 51°50’36"N, 2°6’25"W | ||
Crickley Hill rises to 876 feet above sea level in the Cotswolds. The hill is in Gloucestershire, to the east of Gloucester and south of Cheltenham, and is owned by the National Trust.
The summit of the hill is encompassed in the earthworks of a large hill fort, known as Crickley Hill Camp.[1]
The escarpment of the hill forms an arrow-shaped point looking down towards Gloucester, while the dip slope spreads to the east and part of it forms the Crickley Hill Country Park. The whole is part of an extensive area noted in two parts as a 'site of special scientific interest' known as 'Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake'[2] covering 140 acres. (Barrow Wake is a viewpoint on the ridge to the south of the hill's summit.)
Hill fort
Crickley Hill Camp is an Iron Age hill fort enclosing nine acres.[3] However the site shows signs of having been occupied in the Neolithic Age.
There is evidence of settlements over 5,000 years old. The site has been excavated each summer period from 1969 to 1993 and is considered to be of international importance as a result of the findings. These point to occupation over 4,000 years from the Neolithic period to the post-Roman period.[4]
Over 400 arrowheads were discovered at the entrance to the fort, pointing to a major battle here in the sixth century, during the Saxon conquest of Britain.
Archaeologists have stayed regularly at Ullenwood Camp close to Crickley Hill for the excavation period.
Site of special scientific interest
The Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake is in two parts. It includes some of a site known as Tuffleys Quarry. Part of the site is owned and managed by the local council and the National Trust as a Country Park.[4] The Cotswold Way National Trail passes through Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake.[5]
The site supports a range of habitats characteristic of the Cotswold limestone. It includes species-rich grassland, semi-natural woodland, scrub and particularly nationally important rock exposures.[2][4]
Biological interest
The site supports several types of grassland and the turf contains many lime-loving herbs. There are several species of orchid recorded such as Early purple orchid, Bee Orchid, and Musk Orchid. Viper's Bugloss flowers in abundance. This diversity supports a varied invertebrate fauna (butterflies, moths and local snails).[2][4]
The site includes the Scrubbs and Crickley Woods which are areas of mature beech woodland with regenerating beech and ash.[2][4] Short Wood is an area of oak parkland.[4] The scarp slopes provide basking areas for adders.[4]
Geological interest
The rock exposures constitute a key Jurassic locality and show a major section in the Lower Inferior Oolite. There are extensive exposures of Lower and Middle Jurassic rocks and these exhibit the best sections in the Cotswolds in the Pea Grit and the overlying Coral Bed.[2][4]
Crickley Hill is part of the Cotswold escarpment which geologically runs from Dorset to the Yorkshire Coast. The stone has been quarried for hundreds of years and was probably used for dry stone walling.[4]
Crickley Hill Country Park
The Crickley Hill Country Park was established in 1979 with assistance from the then Countryside Commission. Access to the countryside at this Park provides limestone grassland; beech woodlands, oak parkland; an archaeological site and panoramic views.[4]
There is a range of self-guided trails with supporting leaflets. These include a Hill Fort Trail; Scrubbs Trail; Scarp Trail; Family Trail and Park Trail. There are also circular walks of different lengths (5 and 8½ miles).[4]
Crickley Hill is wardened by Gloucestershire Country Council Sites Warden Service and volunteers from the Cotswold Warden Service.[4]
Literary associations
Crickley Hill was immortalised by Ivor Gurney in his poem of that name (from 1919), recounting how mention and memory of the ridge led to bonding on the Western Front,[6] the hill epitomising in local miniature the England for which they felt they were fighting.[7]
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Crickley Hill -
Crickley Hill -
Crickley Hill -
Crickley Hill Viewpoint -
Old Quarry, Crickley Hill -
Old Quarry, Crickley Hill -
Crickley Hill Country Park showing quarry workings -
Crickley Hill Country Park -
Crickley Hill Country Park -
Beech trees, the Scrubbs -
Footpath through woodland, Crickley Hill
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Outside links
- Crickley Hill Country Park information: Gloucs CC
- Crickley Hill – National Trust
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1003586: Crickley Hill Camp
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 SSSI listing and designation for Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake
- ↑ Crickley Hill features: National Trust
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 Crickley Hill Country Park information: Gloucs CC
- ↑ Cotswold Way National Trail
- ↑ J. Stallworthy/J. Potter eds., Three Poets of the First World War (Penguin 2011) p. 12 and p. 120-1
- ↑ R. Gill, Mastering English Literature (2006) p. 500
Archaeological publications
- Dixon, Philip:
- 'The Hillfort Defences, Crickley Hill' Volume 1 (Crickley Hill Trust and the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, 1994)
- 'A Neolithic and Iron Age site on a hill top in southern England' (Scientific American, 1979) 241(5):42–50
- 'Crickley Hill and Gloucestershire Prehistory' (Gloucestershire CC, 1977)
- Cunliffe B.: 'Gloucestershire and the Iron Age of Southern Britain' (Transactions of the Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 102:5–15, 1984)