Hunsbury Hill
Hunsbury Hill is an Iron Age hill fort two miles southwest of Northampton town centre, in Northamptonshire.
It is probable that defences were built at Hunsbury Hill between the 7th and 4th centuries BC. The deep ditch excavated has survived to the present day. A wooden rampart was also constructed; there is evidence that Hunsbury hill fort's inner ramparts were burned down and vitrified, a phenomenon more familiar amongstthe burned forts of the Highlands.[1]
Ironstone extraction began at the hill fort in the 1880s, after an attempt to have the site protected under the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882 failed due to the cost of compensating the landowner. Many of the fort's internal features were destroyed, but the work revealed up to 300 pits which, according to the curator of Northampton Museum in 1887, contained "numerous artefacts that now comprise one of the finest collections... of Prehistoric antiquities in England". The finds included iron weapons and tools, bronze brooches, pottery, glass and around 159 quern-stones. All were given to the town's museum.[1]
Hunsbury Hill fort is a designated Scheduled Ancient Monument. Parts of the fort's banks have been badly eroded because of the 19th century quarrying, the effects of burrowing rabbits and damage from tree roots.[1] It is now managed as a park by the local council. Part of the railway built for the quarrying remains and is maintained by Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust.[2]
The area around the hill is the large Northampton housing estate called 'West Hunsbury'.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Northampton Archaeological Society: Hunsbury Hillfort. 2004. Retrieved 17 August 2009
- ↑ Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust
Coordinates: 52°13′08″N 0°55′13″W / 52.21889°N 0.92023°W
