Monument record MDO4526 - Banbury Hill, Okeford Fitzpaine

A hill fort formed by a single bank and ditch enclosing the top of a low, flat-topped hill. The earthworks have been reduced by later cultivation, and aerial photographs show them crossed by medieval ridge and furrow. In 1970 the best preserved parts of the earthworks were described as consisting of a shallow bank around 50 feet across and 2 feet high, and ditch around 25 feet wide and one foot deep. There is an entrance on the western side of the enclosure, protected by an earthwork bank creating a narrow access way.

(ST 78981194) Camp (NR) (1)
BANBURY (790120), an Iron Age univallage hillfort of 3 acres on the summit of a low, flat-topped hill (Plate 182), rises to 361 ft. above O.D.; it lies on an isolated patch of Plateau Gravel, within a broad belt of Kimmeridge Clay. Though never very massive, its defences have been reduced in the past by cultivation. Where best preserved they consist of a bank 50 ft. across rising 2 ft. above the interior and 6 ft. above the ditch bottom, the ditch, being 25 ft. across and 1 ft. deep. In places, particularly along the S. side, the bank is no more than a scarp, 3 ft. high, and for much of the circumference the external ditch is no longer visible. The entrance gap, on the W. side, is protected by a flanking arm linked to the main rampart and consisting of a scarp up to 5 ft. high, with traces of an external ditch; the arm curves oddly, in an opposite arc to that of the main rampart, so that the access-way from the S. is at one point only 7 ft. wide. There has been slight quarrying into the outwork. No traces of internal remains exist. <2-3>

The Iron Age univallate hillfort on Banbury Hill is generally as described by R.C.H.M. <2>, although the ramparts have since been reduced by ploughing to an average height of 2.0m. Nonetheless overall the site is well preserved and is now under permanent pasture. Poorly defined on OS air photographs <3>.

Resurveyed at 1:2500 on MSDs ST 7811/12, 7911/12, in conjunction with RCHM plan. <4>

Ordnance Survey, OS 74/059/281-82 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17687.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1987, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1986, 175-177 (Serial). SDO86.

‘OBSERVATIONS AT BANBURY HILL CAMP, OKEFORD FITZPAINE
The earthworks at Banbury Hill (ST 790120) have been described by the Royal Commission and identified as an Iron Age univallate hillfort (RCHM 1970, 206). The cutting of a water supply pipe across the earthwork just to the north of the entrance gap and flanking arm on the western side, enabled some observation and records to be made, although the pipe trench, 0.6 m deep and 0.15 m wide did not allow detailed recording of the section.
The embankment consisted of a local limestone and occasional flint/chert fragments, 2.5 m wide at base, laid on top of a clay subsoil at the crest of the slope. This limestone bank occurred directly below 0.15 m of modern topsoil. On the outer face of the rampart a thick accumulation of gravels were recorded. Inside the rampart were homogeneous dark brown loams with no visible stratigraphy. There was no indication of a ditch in the upper pipe trench, but its presence may have remained undetected due to the field conditions and the narrowness and depth of the trench, which did not reach any underlying natural soils or bedrock. The gravel tip across the face of the limestone bank may be derived from the rampart construction as a result of ploughing across the rampart interior. No features or material of prehistoric date were located or recovered from the interior nor from the rampart, a fact which leaves the dating open for question.
These observations were undertaken by the Trust for Wessex Archaeology for the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission (England), as a condition of scheduled monument consent for this site (Scheduled Monument Dorset 142). The cutting of the pipe trench was notified in April 1968 [sic] by Mr A. S. Trowbridge and arrangements were made for Paul Pearce to record the pipe-trench section in the scheduled area. The work was organised by Peter J. Woodward who collated the archive and prepared a comprehensive note from the site record for HBMC (England).
The record is registered under the TWA Archive number W126. The site record consists of notebook, colour slides and annotated plan, and the completed archive will be deposited in the Dorset County Museum.’

Stewart, D, 2013, Banbury hillfort. A Geophysical Survey (Unpublished document). SDO16763.

Lock, G, and Ralston, I, 2017, Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland [ONLINE], EN3581 (Digital archive). SDO17130.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 206 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(38) BANBURY (790120), an Iron Age univallate hill-fort of 3 acres on the summit of a low, flat-topped hill (Plate 183), rises to 361 ft. above O.D.; it lies on an isolated patch of Plateau Gravel, within a broad belt of Kimmeridge Clay. Though never very massive, its defences have been reduced in the past by cultivation. Where best preserved they consist of a bank 50 ft. across rising 2 ft. above the interior and 6 ft. above the ditch bottom, the ditch being 25 ft. across and 1 ft. deep. In places, particularly along the S. side, the bank is no more than a scarp, 3 ft. high, and for much of the circumference the external ditch is no longer visible. The entrance gap, on the W. side, is protected by a flanking arm linked to the main rampart and consisting of a scarp up to 5 ft. high, with traces of an external ditch; the arm curves oddly, in an opposite arc to that of the main rampart, so that the access-way from the S. is at one point only 7 ft. wide. There has been slight quarrying into the outwork. No traces of internal remains exist.’

<3> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 4177-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17686.

<4> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F1 GB 11-AUG-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

Record last edited

Feb 18 2022 3:13PM