Monument record MDO309 - Chalbury, Bincombe

Earthwork remains of an Iron Age hillfort with evidence for earlier Late Bronze Age occupation, and possible later Roman settlement. Chalbury is a contour hillfort with evidence for earlier Late Bronze Age occupation, and possible later Roman settlement. The earthworks consist of a single rampart and ditch, with one original entrance at the south eastern end of the hillfort. Circular depressions visible in the interior may be the sites of storage pits.

Chalbury (name confirmed): under permanent pasture and in good state of preservation. Resurveyed at 1:2500 on MSD (from RCHM plan). <3>

Chalbury is a contour hillfort with evidence for earlier Late Bronze Age occupation, and possible later Roman settlement. It has a single rampart and external ditch the former augmented by an interior quarry ditch. There is one original entrance at the south east. A number of circular depressions up to about 9m across may be the sites of original storage pits. The earthwork remains of the hillfort were digitally plotted from aerial photographs and LiDAR imagery <4-6> during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Stewart, D, 2014, Chalbury, Dorset. A Geophysical Survey (Unpublished document). SDO21390.

<1> Society of Antiquaries of London, 1943, The Antiquaries Journal, 98-121 (Serial). SDO17176.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 486 (Monograph). SDO149.

'(76) CHALBURY (SY 68 SE; 695838; Plate 216) is a contour hill-fort with single rampart and external ditch, the former augmented by an interior quarry ditch, or line of quarry pits, running inside it for 3/5 of its length. There is one original entrance at the S.E. The interior, of about 8½ acres, shows extensive signs of occupation. The rampart encloses the domed crest of a knoll, partly Lower Purbeck Limestone and partly Portland Sands, standing prominently at 380 ft. above sea level in a controlling position at the N. end of a ridge (Rimbury) which splits a valley leading inland from Weymouth Bay (Figs. pp. 24, 484). Excavation by Miss M. Whitley in 1939 has shown that it belongs to Iron Age 'A' (Ant. J. XXIII (1943), 98–121).

Strip lynchets (Bincombe (11)) run into the defences on the N., and on the N.E. lie at their foot along the steep scarp beneath them; on the E. side are a narrow cultivation terrace and a terraced approach, both of uncertain date. The external ditch running N. from outside the entrance seems to have been converted into a cultivation terrace for much of its length. A large modern quarry bites almost up to the ditch on the W. and it is possible that shallow quarrying of a date later than that of the original occupation might be partly responsible for some of the more irregular sinkings inside the hill-fort. The whole is now pasture. The nearest source of water at present is a spring ½ a mile to the S.
The rampart stands 1 ft. to 3 ft. above the interior except near the centre of the E. side, where it is little more than a scarped edge; its height above the external ditch averages about 21 ft. Where excavated it was seen to have external and internal limestone walls retaining the soil and stone core. Internally there was also, at the S.E., a stone kerb at the tail of the rampart. Externally, convenient stone outcrops were utilised in the structure of the wall and there was a berm 5 ft. to 9 ft. wide. The flat-bottomed ditch was cut into the bed-rock at a variable distance below this. For the greater part the ditch has a terraced appearance. On the E. for 40 yds. N. from the entrance it is rather irregular, some 2 ft. deep.
The internal quarry ditch runs N. from the entrance as a parallel-sided ditch for 115 yds. It was originally about 18 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep but was allowed to silt up quickly and used as a sheltered occupation area. A 'causeway' blocks this run of ditch and thereafter it is supplanted by a series of quarry pits, broken at the extreme N. by another 'causeway', here found to consist largely of sand. About 100 yds. S.W. of this, the well-marked line of pits gives place to a series of much shallower scalloped depressions which ends abruptly after a further 65 yds. There is, however, no apparent correlation between the size and different treatment of the quarry ditch or pits and the dimensions of the rampart immediately adjacent. A flattened strip, 55 ft. and more wide, lies inside the S. rampart, the slight scarp defining it on the N. side being a continuation of that N. of the entrance.

The entrance is a simple gap with slight hollowing, perhaps partly cut rather than worn, immediately inside. A ramped approach might be original. A track climbing diagonally across the rampart 120 yds. S.W. of the entrance is not original.

Two small banks run downhill from outside the ditch. One, from the natural shoulder at the S.W., is 15 ft. wide and 1 ft. high and ends after 33 yds., before reaching the quarry edge. The second, 75 yds. to the N., has a slight ditch on the S. side and is cut by the quarry after 25 yds.

The interior is pocked by numerous roughly circular depressions and weakly-defined platforms. The latter, of which there are 30 or more, appear largely to be ranged around the perimeter, though the hut 'D', built in a shallow Iron Age quarry, was notably high up the slope. Only one platform, 20 yds. S. of the northern 'causeway' across the quarry ditch, had a bank.

The most irregular depressions might be quarries of any date, but if of the Iron Age are likely—as at 'D'—to have been put to some use. The smaller circular depressions up to about 15 ft. across, of which there are at least 20, probably represent original storage pits. There are two main groups, one N. of hut 'D' and one just W. of round barrow Bincombe (74). The only excavated example (in the northern group) was round, 5 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. deep, with straight sides cut into the rock. Both of the Bronze Age barrows (73) and (74), set so prominently on the summit of the hill, were apparently respected.

The excavation of the hill-fort was limited to the following features:—the rampart, ditch and quarry ditch 25 yds. N. of the entrance (site 'A'), the rampart, quarry ditch and causeway across it at the northern tip of the hill-fort (site 'C'), occupation layers with post-holes, probably a hut, in the quarry ditch at site 'A', building 'D', two scooped-out platforms with no signs of structure and few finds, and one storage pit. The building 'D', partly stone-walled, was the only site completely excavated in the interior: it was odd in that, despite abundant evidence of occupation across an internal diameter of 33 ft., it seemed to have neither hearth, entrance nor post-holes.

Apart from a Late Bronze Age layer buried under the rampart at the extreme N., a thin scatter of Romano-British potsherds at site 'D' and a fragment of samian ware in the ditch, the finds were all of Iron Age 'A', exhibiting two phases, the earlier having the finer specimens of haematite pottery. Hut 'A' belonged to the earlier phase and 'D' to the later.

Other finds included a small tanged iron knife, bone 'gouges' (cf. p. 499), a very small annular blue-glass bead, fragments of a bronze ring, a bronze bracelet or ear-ring, bronze binding and rivets, a piece of a saddle-quern, charred wheat (identified as Triticum vulgare by Prof. Percival), a spindle-whorl and slingstones. There were also 11 worked flints, including an endscraper and borer, of somewhat uncertain date but apparently stratified with the Iron Age material. Scatters of human bones were found, but only a few animal bones—including ox and sheep. '

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 22-JUL-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> 2006, LiDAR D0059947 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11966.

<5> 06-MAR-2003, NMR SY6983/12-15 (23002/01-4) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11967.

<6> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3242 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11964.

<7> Lock, G, and Ralston, I, 2017, Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland [ONLINE], EN3587 (Digital archive). SDO17130.

<8> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<9> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 6983/2/F2 (Index). SDO14738.

OBLIQUE PHOTOGRAPH

<10> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 883115 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Chalbury, Bincombe, Dorset. 4 profiles at different scales. This is on the same sheet as GAM 883073

<11> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AA72/01787 (Index). SDO14738.

PLAN OF UNIVALLATE HILLFORT

<12> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF0887215 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: File - Bincombe. Chalbury Camp, hillfort.Contents : PlanCondition : INTACT

<13> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB72/04015 (Index). SDO14738.

VIEW FROM NORTH

<14> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB72/04016 (Index). SDO14738.

VIEW FROM NORTH

<15> Historic England, Historic England Archive, CC72/01481 (Index). SDO14738.

VIEW FROM NORTH

<16> Historic England, Historic England Archive, CC72/01482 (Index). SDO14738.

PLAN OF UNIVALLATE HILLFORT

<18> Historic England, Historic England Archive, P04032 (Index). SDO14738.

STRIP LYNCHETS IN VALLEY TO NORTH-EAST

<19> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452691 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 4 2025 11:23AM