Summary Results from the Summer 2007 Excavations
The Credenhill Fort: a Short History
A six-week archaeological excavation was carried out at Credenhill Iron Age Hill Fort to the west of Hereford in August and September 2007. Under the direction of Peter Dorling of Herefordshire Archaeology, the team were helped by local volunteers and Cardiff University students. The excavations are part of a longer-term project being undertaken in partnership with The Woodland Trust.
The Trust has been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to conserve and study Credenhill Park Wood, which the fort – the largest in the Marches of Wales – stands within. The bigger project will involve the removal of conifer trees (planted in the 1960s) from much of the fort, and the restoration of the surrounding woodland to mixed deciduous cover.
Peter Dorling said: “This is an important opportunity to learn more about the history of the fort in the Iron Age and into the Roman period. Hopefully it will shed light on the Iron Age in the county more widely, given that this is the first sustained campaign of excavation of a hill fort in Herefordshire for 40 years,” he added.
Dr Keith Ray, the County Archaeologist, who directs the overall archaeological project for the Trust and Herefordshire Council, said: “The 2007 excavations represent a further stage in the partnership with The Woodland Trust that in 2003-4 saw the purchase of Park Wood and the fort for woodland restoration, historic conservation and access purposes."
“We are delighted to be able to assist with this further stage of work, and we intend that our new excavations will amplify what is known about this massive site,” he added.
The 2007 excavations will feature in a Time Team Special documentary about hill forts that was made this summer and will include footage of other Herefordshire sites. The programme will be broadcast on Channel 4 television in 2008.
Summary Results from the Summer 2007 Excavations
GALLERY - Please click on the thumbnails below to see larger images
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In all, six trenches were opened during the 2007 season. Two were specifically designed to investigate earthworks within the interior of the enclosure. It was thought that these might represent the remains of an earlier smaller enclosure, which would have encircled the higher southern part of the hill. Of the other four trenches one was placed to examine a trackway that the Woodland Trust wish to upgrade for timber extraction and the others were designed to test for activity and archaeological features and deposits in various areas within the southern part of the hill, and to try to assess the affect that tree growth is having on the archaeology.
One of the earthworks investigated consisted of a low bank running roughly across a portion of the centre of the hillfort. It was low and broad in profile and could have represented an eroded rampart from an earlier phase of Iron Age occupation of the site. A trench measuring 25m by 4m was opened to examine the nature of the bank (Trench 1), that is. was there any structure to it and was there an accompanying ditch from which the bank material was dug? No ditch was revealed and finds of very abraded Romano-British pottery and two probable Roman coins from the bank material itself showed that it was definitely a post Iron Age feature. The most likely explanation is that it formed as a headland or lynchet associated with Medieval or Post-Medieval ploughing of the hillfort interior. There were few other features within the area opened, though notably a large oval pit was discovered beneath the material of the headland or lynchet. Although the function of this pit is unclear, it contained only Iron Age pottery.
Evidence of Iron Age and/or Romano-British activity was detected in two of the other trenches and these will be the focus of further work in 2008. In the second trench placed to investigate earthwork features (Trench 2) on the inside edge of the Iron Age quarry ditch, a stone surface was uncovered. This appeared to represent a surfaced path running along the lip of the ditch. It is hoped that work next year will concentrate on excavating a section through the quarry ditch itself. Another trench revealed a number of features containing quantities of Roman pottery (Trench 4). Time constraints meant that these could not be fully examined this year but they will be the focus of one of the main excavation areas in 2008.
Of the work designed to inform future management of the site, it was shown that the trackway was one that was created during the clear felling and replanting of the site in the 1960s. Upgrading of this track by surfacing will not therefore have a detrimental affect on any archaeology.
It was clear however that root growth is a more serious threat to archaeological features and deposits. Penetration and growth of roots will displace and obscure archaeological deposits, potentially causing problems with distinguishing inter-cutting features and the allocation of finds. Another aspect of the threat to archaeology from tree roots is, of course, the disturbance that would occur if trees blow over, tearing large areas of soil up with the roots. Management of the standing trees to prevent these is one of the major challenges ahead.
Credenhill Fort: a Short History
As far as has so far been established from archaeological excavation (by the late Dr Stan Stanford in the mid-1960s), the hilltop at Credenhill featured occupation spanning the years c.600BC to c.150AD.
The exact sequence of construction of the defences is unknown, since these have not so far been examined. However, at the “peak” of site development (perhaps c.200BC) the hilltop was enclosed by the ramparts that can still be seen today.
These comprise mostly double-ditched contour-tracing enclosure works, with a single bank and ditch only where topography renders the need for a double circuit unnecessary. They enclose an elongated rectangular area of 50 hectares, aligned north-south along a prominent ridge rising to 600 feet above sea level, and overlooking the wide valley of the Wye in which Hereford itself is central. The hill fort is the largest multivallate earthwork enclosure in the Marches of Wales.
Along the course of the defences, two certainly Iron Age entrances are marked by inturned flanking banks. The larger of these is located close to the mid-point on the eastern side. The second, smaller, entrance is located just to the north of the south-eastern angle of the defences.
A simple north entrance may be post-Iron Age. An angled ‘postern’ entrance appears to have been part of the original defences on the west side, just north of the south-west angle of the defences. This pattern, with major entrances on the east (away from the prevailing wind) and back entrances to north and west is repeated elsewhere in the county in forts sharing the same orientation (such as British Camp on the Malvern Hills at Colwall).
During the Iron Age, the fort interior featured terraces for domestic buildings. A series of post-built store-houses were constructed in the sheltered quarry-ditch within the main (inner) rampart, at least near the main east entrance. A series of sunken and partly embanked trackways may have been constructed (or become worn) approaching the entrances on all sides.
Exactly how the fort was used throughout these centuries in uncertain. The post-built structures were rebuilt on broadly the same sites several times. It seems most likely that occupation of the fort at least on any scale was episodic.
In the period c.40BC to c.150BC an entirely new way of building within, and perhaps also occupying the site, was established. This comprised the creation of stone paved areas and levelled foundations, probably for partly stone-built structures. It is not certain why the fort was abandoned, but the “new town” at Kenchester that had by the second century become well established on the lower land nearer the Wye may have proved a more attractive location for settlement.
For further information contact Dr Keith Ray on 01432 383351 or Peter Dorling on 01432 383238