MONUMENT NO. 118791

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DESCRIPTION

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Possible site of an Iron Age Hillfort suggested by place-name evidence, although no surface trace remains.

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Scarping on churchyard hill at Wednesbury (1) (area
SO 988 953), traditionally ascribed to Ethelfleda (2). No
evidence to attribute these earthworks to Ethelfleda. They may
represent an Iron Age Hill Fort (3). No trace of defensive
earthworks seen around Church Hill in 1958 (4).

The place-name Wednesbury is suggestive of a prehistoric earthwork:
Wednesbury means the burh or fortified place of Woden (5a), although
Gelling (5b) prefers to emphasise the pagan religious associations of
the name over the defensive element. Palliser (5c) has speculated that the Saxons may have built a (pagan) temple and later a Christian
church inside an earlier stronghold.

Church Hill is a flattish-topped hill lying close to the River Tame.
It rises gently up from the surrounding flood plain before steepening
around the summit itself and plateauing out at about 163m above OD.
The hill's form and topographical location are certainly suited to it
being the site of a stronghold, although if so no surface trace
survives today. The west end of the summit of Church Hill is occupied
by St Bartholomew's Church. Immediately to the west and north,
Ethelfleda Memorial Gardens and St Mary's RC Church have been terraced into the slope. The intervening stretch of churchyard seems
to have preserved the former hill profile, but no sign of an
encircling rampart or ditch can be seen. Elsewhere modern development
has largely obscured the original ground surface, and detailed field
inspection was therefore not attempted. Such scarps as are readily
visible to the rear of the properties north of St Mary's Road and
south of Lover's Walk seem explicable in terms of terracing for
building work rather than as defensive earthworks. (5)

There are several antiquarian accounts of earthworks around Church
Hill, some of which can still be traced on the ground. Two trial
trenches across one of the supposed ramparts on the west side of
Ethelfleda Terrace showed that the bank here is of modern origin and
that modern building is likely to have destroyed earlier features.
(6)

SOURCE TEXT

(1) General reference

Odd Chapters in the Hist of Wednesbury 1920 13 plan (F W Hackwood)

(2) General reference

Hist & Ants of Staffs 2 1801 83 (S Shaw)

(3) General reference

Hist of Wednesbury 1962 13-14 (J F Ede)

(4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 VJB 11-JUL-58

(5) General reference

Marcus Jecock/02-AUG-1988/RCHME: Staffordshire Hillforts Project

(5a) General reference

Ekwall, E 1960. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press (503)

(5b) General reference

Gelling, M 1987. Signposts to the Past. London: J.M. Dent (161)

(5c) General reference

Palliser, D M 1976. The Staffordshire Landscape. London: Hodder and Stoughton (42)

(6) General reference

W. Midlands Archaeology, 33, 1990, 97 (S.Buteux)

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