West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 2: White
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Herefordshire: From the Middle Bronze Age to the Later
Iron Age
Paul White, Landscape Archaeologist
Herefordshire Archaeology, Planning Services, PO Box 144, Herefordshire Council, HR1 2YH
Pwhite@herefordshire.gov.uk
Introduction
The review presented below for archaeological evidence of the Middle Bronze Age to
Later Iron Age proceeds along a chronological timescale with consideration of the
evidence for various activities such as settlement, funerary practices, landscape
organisation and exchange. It will become clear that our understanding for these
activities varies between the two chronological periods and is far from complete.
Evidence for the Middle to Late Bronze Age in the county best illustrates this, where
activity is recognised from stray finds of metalwork or the limited evidence of
funerary practice.
Middle Bronze Age settlement
There is currently no conclusive evidence for settlement structures in the Bronze Age.
Settlement has been supposed from flint scatters, associated with artefacts from earlier
prehistoric periods in the south-west of the county, but any definite evidence eludes
us. Perhaps this is no surprise when the nature of the recovery of material is
considered. It is often no more than ‘serendipity’. The disturbance of deposits from
ploughing and other agricultural processes dominate the retrieval of artefacts for this
period. This in turn reflects our biggest challenge in trying to understand the period
and the survival of evidence.
It is difficult to generalise about the nature of fine metalwork deposits other than to
note their existence. The isolated discovery of metalwork throughout the county is the
result of late 19th-century drainage of meers and moors, such as in the northwest of
the county at Byton Moor near Buckton (HSMR) or the result of mid 20th-century
changes in agricultural land management, such as Walford near Ross (HSMR) and
Willox Bridge at Allensmore (HSMR). It is these places that may mark the location of
large-scale deposition of metalwork and potential areas of future research. Appraisal
of the records suggests, however, that source work has not been carried out on the
metalwork to enable better understanding of exchange and deposition. Likewise the
discovery of hoards during the 1980’s at Madley (HSMR), consisting of a group of
axes and at Much Marcle, that contained a set of looped palstaves, appear to mark the
location of Late Bronze Age activity across the southern part of the county (HSMR).
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Middle Bronze Age funerary practices
From limited excavations at Midsummers Hill there is evidence for internments into
earlier monuments such as barrows during the Mid- Late Bronze Age. The best
evidence for funerary practice for the period comes from the only recorded flat
cemetery in Herefordshire located in the east of the county near Mathon (HSMR).
Again the discovery of the cemetery was a casual find, being destroyed by a sand and
gravel quarry in the early 20th-century. From 1907- 1910, twenty to thirty internments
were discovered before a local antiquarian visited the site and noted two fragments of
pottery urns and 13 further deposits in- situ, some with associated spear tips. The
intermittent extensions to the quarrying up into the 1930’s revealed further occasional
deposits but not in any great number as previously observed (TWNFC, ).
Middle Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age landscape organisation
It is more recent work that has revealed the potential for understanding landscape
organisation in the Late Bronze Age or the Early Iron Age within the county. Two key
approaches are being taken to understand this organisation and ultimately its
recognition within the current landscape. The first is through the analysis of field
patterns, particularly via the work of the Historic Landscape Characterisation for the
county and second through aerial reconnaissance work and ground investigation.
It appears as three distinct areas in the north-east, the central Wye- Lugg plain and
most coherently in the north-west of the county. All of these areas contain attributes
that may represent early landscape organisation. The areas consist of long, sinuous
boundaries that run northwest-southeast over substantial distances and adhere to an
axially- planned division of the landscape. It is interesting to note the possibility of
early landscape organisation existing in the county or even in some cases the
attributes of that organisation persisting into this century, either in terms of the scale
of the areas being organised or the general orientation of boundaries.
In the north-eastern area of Herefordshire in the Upper Frome Valley, linear banks
can be observed for over two- three kilometres around Wall Hills Iron Age Hillfort.
The banks exist as either surviving boundaries or as earthworks that can be traced
within the landscape. The chronological resolution is still lacking here but in the
central and north-west areas, the field pattern appears to be superimposed by ‘marker’
features such as Roman Roads and a post- Roman dyke monument.
Rowe Ditch, a post Roman dyke, is situated in the relatively flat landscape of the
Arrow Valley floodplain in the northern part of Pembridge parish. The earthwork is
orientated north-south which appears to cut across the field system on either side of
the dyke which is orientated northwest-southeast. Aerial photography of this area
provides finer detail on the development of the landscape. Rowe Ditch bisects a
multiple- rectangular enclosure, the morphology of which is presumed to be late Iron
Age or Romano-British in origin. Significantly the enclosure that may represent a
farmstead is also orientated on northwest-southeast alignment similar to the existing
field system. Recently, more detail from aerial photography of a neighbouring field
has revealed the existence of contiguous enclosures and the definition of individual
‘fields’ situated within the now larger enclosed areas (HSMR) also displaying a
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northwest-southeast orientation. What is of interest is that the modern configuration of
the landscape, with evidence for two distinct periods of disturbance of medieval
headlands and post- medieval survey- planned enclosure reorganisation, retains the
northwest-southeast orientation to the field system and remains a dominant
characteristic of the
We are currently unable to specifically date the field system to a period other than
note it can be no later than Romano- British due to the stratigraphic relationship with .
We also cannot comment in detail yet on the transformation of the landscape that is
detected elsewhere in the country during the Middle- Late Bronze Age or on possible
changes to the Middle Bronze Age landscape organisation in subsequent time periods.
However this recent work within the county highlights the areas where potential
future research could be directed to answer those questions. It also raises the question
if these are early landscape divisions, what is the relationship with the presumed
associated settlement and what, in turn, is understood about those settlements.
Iron Age Settlement
Knowledge of Iron Age settlement in Herefordshire has been dominated by its most
recognisable feature - that of hillforts (over 40 throughout the county). Emphasis in
the past has been upon understanding the development of these sites perhaps to the
detriment of understanding of the wider Iron Age landscape. However this
understanding is still based upon a limited sample of investigations within hill forts
(Croft Ambrey, Midsummers Hill, Credenhill and Sutton Walls) and recent studies
suggest some re- evaluation is required of the published results.
It is postulated that many of the early hillforts are often situated on steep scarp- edges
with a univallate defence. Examples of this early phase are suggested at such sites as
Croft Ambrey and Wapley Hill. Recent survey work to the west of Croft Ambrey, at
Mere Hill in Aymmestry has possibly shed light on the origins and construction of
hillforts within the county and that more hillforts or similar enclosures await to be
discovered. The site of Mere Hill is situated on the ridge of a steep scarp slope and a
field survey revealed the incomplete circuit of a single bank and ditch, constructed of
a series of similar length segments of defences, which appears to have never been
completed. But the nearby site of Croft Ambrey was completed, the construction of
which is attributed to 700- 650 BC.
Further information on the construction of hillforts was gleaned from salvage
recording within Ivington Camp in 1996 (Dalwood et al., 1997). The site consists of
an inner rampart, that excavation revealed consisted of a row of postholes that are
interpreted as timber strengthening. It is the first time this feature has been recorded in
a Herefordshire hillfort and a provisional date of the 6th –5th Century BC is attributed
to its construction.
Those hillforts that do continue develop in complexity with a peak in activity during
the 4th Century BC. This is reflected in the construction of further outer defences at
Ivington Camp and at Croft Ambrey. The proliferation of heavily defended sites
appears as part of the period for the Middle Iron Age. This sequence of events
however is not always as straightforward. At Cherry Hill, Fownhope, a multiple
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rampart hillfort, there is clear evidence for vitrification of the inner rampart. However,
the site was not abandoned but it appears the defences were enlarged as a secondary
circuit with re quarrying of ditches, terracing of the inner rampart and the construction
of a more elaborate gateway with external hornworks.
Revisionist studies have demonstrated the need for the re- appraisal of evidence and
cover various strands of research. Among these are the issues of sequence within
hillforts, the nature of the settlement and of Iron Age houses and the evidence for the
continuation or termination of activity beyond the Late Iron Age.
Excavations in the past have targeted the gateways of the hillfort and sequences have
focused upon the gateway constructions such as at Croft Ambrey. Problems are
exacerbated by the difficulties in establishing a chronology particularly from pottery,
and there is a need for a coherent type series for the county. A recent field survey after
bracken clearance revealed the remains of many circular huts surviving as slight
earthwork platforms which, coupled with a re-examination of the excavation report,
suggests contrary evidence for the view that four-poster and rectangular buildings predominated. It is suggested that during the Middle Iron Age Croft Ambrey witnesses
an increase in deposition that implies a major change in use. This is thought to
contradict the view that the site was continuously densely occupied from the 3rd
Century BC to the Roman Conquest (Jackson, ). Colin Haselgrove’s study of the
fibulae from Croft Ambrey notes only 3rd and 2nd-century forms are common,
postulating that dense occupation at the site was concluded by the end of the 2nd
century BC. While later forms occur at sites such as Sutton Walls suggesting
continuity into the 1st century AD (Haselgrove,).
But it is now the landscape around hillforts that draws our attention. Beyond the
hilltop enclosures aerial photography is revealing an Iron Age landscape that could
have been widely populated. At the moment only the broad morphological form of
these enclosures are known about rather than the cultural significance being
understood. This marks an aspect of future research. The distribution of known
cropmarks suggests the existence in the county of dense areas of enclosures and sites
can show complexity within themselves.
The cropmarks vary from single ditch enclosures as at Green Lane Farm, Staunton on
Arrow to multiple ditched enclosures that sit within a contemporary field system such
as at Coleswood, Leintwardine and Oxhouse Farm, Shobdon. Elsewhere the cropmark
evidence is interpreted to reveal various phases of succession on a site such as at
Brinshope, Wigmore. Little is known about the role or status of these sites but there
has been limited investigation of one such site at Ridgeway, Cradley.
The site was discovered by aerial photography and consists of a single ditch
enclosure. An area was opened near the entrance which revealed metalworking debris
associated with Middle Iron Age pottery in the upper levels. These deposits had
slumped into the upper fills of the ditch, preserving them from the ploughing that had
all but erased the internal features and deposits within the enclosure ditch. The lower
ditch fill was a single phase levelling of the rampart material, with further sherds of
pottery indistinguishable in type from that of the upper levels (Hoverd, 2000).
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Iron Age Exchange
In the Later Iron Age there is evidence for Herefordshire to be participating in
patterns of trade that can be traced back into the Middle Iron Age. This is most
identifiable in the recovery of ceramics, briquetage and metalworking, the latter
evident from the example at Cradley and other excavations around the county. The
study of briquetage from the county has revealed an early series dated to pre 500BC
sourced to Nantwich in Cheshire, while post- 500BC the proportion of Cheshire
containers to the Droitwich vessels vary from site to site, but are apparently
represented contemporaneously across Herefordshire. This is significant in
understanding exchange and presumably alliances. Pottery for this period is derived
from a Malvernian fabric with igneous rock inclusions and a Palaeozoic limestone
tempered ware form an unknown source but postulated from the Malverns, Woolhope
dome or May Hill area.
References
Dalwood, H., Hurst, D. and Pearson, E. 1997. Salvage Recording at Ivington
Camp, Leominster: Archive Report. Report 570. County Archaeological
Service, Herefordshire and Worcestershire County Council
Haselgrove, C. 1997. Iron Age landscapes and cultural biographies, in Gwilt, A. and
Haselgrove, C. (eds) Reconstructing Iron Age Societies: New Approaches to
the British Iron Age, 51-72. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 71
Jackson, D. 1999. Variation in the Size Distribution of Hillforts in the Welsh Marches
and its implications for Social Organisation, in Bevan, B. (ed) Northern
Exposure: interpretative devolution and the Iron Age in Britian, 197-216.
Leicester University: Leicester Archaeology Monograph 4
Ray, K. unpublished. The Iron Age in Herefordshire. Seminar on Iron Age
Archaeology in the West Midlands Region. IFA West Midlands Regional
Group. Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick 2001
Stanford, S. 1974. Croft Ambrey: excavations carried out for the Woolhope
Naturalists’ Field Club, 1960-1966. Hereford
1991. The Archaeology of the Welsh Marches (revised second edition).
Hereford
TWNFC (Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club)