BURY BANK

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Earthwork remains of a bivallate Iron Age hillfort.

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(SJ 8821 3591) Wulferecester (NR). (1)

Bury Bank, bivallate Hill Fort, enclosing 3 1/2 acres, with an
inturned entrance to the NW, opposite which are indications of
another entrance. Excavations in 1892 showed the bank to be
constructed of earth and stones. (2)

Included in 'A List of Hill-forts with inturned entrances'. (3)

Bury Bank, locally known as "the Rings", is a bivallate
contour-fort, enclosing the summit of an oval hill. The ramparts
consist of an inner bank, a ditch, berm and outer bank but large
parts of these have disappeared by natural erosion. On the eastern
side, for a length of circa 50.0m, the inner rampart has gone,
perhaps quarried away. The only entrance is at the north-west
where the inner bank inturns to form a passage circa 30.0m long:
both the ditch and the outer bank are absent outside the entrance.
No internal features were seen but the whole area is covered
with bracken. (4)

Bury Bank; Iron Age bivallate defended settlement, as described
above. Published 1:2500 survey revised. (5)

Listed by Challis and Harding as a 3l5 acre bivallate contour
hillfort (Iron Age). (6)

Bury Bank (NAT) Fort (NR). (7)

Bury Bank Iron Age hillfort, centred at SJ 8821 3593, was surveyed at
1:1000, by RCHME in 1991. This is a bivallvate defensive site that
fits both morphologically and topographically into the general
category of later pre-historic hillforts. The fort is sub-oval in
plan and covers an area of 1.94 ha (4.78 acres). Twin ramparts
encircle the crown of the hill following the natural contours, and
are separated by a broad terrace referred to previously as a 'berm'
(Authority 4). The inner rampart survives to an internal height of
around 0.7m, although a discontinuous, now silted quarry ditch inside
the rampart suggests that it originally stood to a greater height.
Externally the rampart appears quite substantial due to the broad
terrace (mentioned above) cut into the slope of the hill beneath;
this terrace is presently used as a vehicle track. A shallow
discontinuous ditch runs along the base of the terrace, apparently
an original feature rather than damage caused by vehicles. At the S
end of the fort up to 10m of flat ground lies between the inner
rampart and this terrace, suggesting that the rampart (at least here)
may represent a later contraction of the defended area. The outer
rampart, which still survives to an internal height of 0.5m and an
external height of up to 3m, was originally built-up above the level
of the terrace although this earthwork is now much reduced (most
notably on the N and W sides) and is, in places, missing altogether.
Both the hillfort ramparts have been damaged by later quarrying, but
the outer rampart in particular has been affected by modern trackways
which breach the external defences in the NE and S of the site.

There is a single in-turned entrance to the hillfort on the W side:
both sides of the entrance passage are built out over the internal
quarry ditch. To the outside the entrance passage slopes steeply down
to the level of the terrace, but there is no indication of how the
entrance may have originally related to the outer defensive
earthworks. There is no evidence for a second entrance as has been
suggested (Authy 2).

Traces of slight and unplannable ridging within the fort interior
were noted during the present survey which may be indicative of
former ploughing; this would explain, in part, the smoothed
appearance of the inner defences. The site has, in the past, been
associated with the Mercian king Wulfhere who reigned between AD 658-
674 (8a); no evidence was found by the present survey to suggest that
the hillfort was re-used or re-modelled at this time.

Two barrows lie within the interior of the fort; they were excavated
during the last century with inconclusive results (see NMR no: SJ 83
NE 2).

Full RCHME survey information, including a detailed report, is
available in the NMR Archive. (8)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1922-38

( 2) General reference

Victoria County History Staffs 1 1908 342-344 plan (C Lynam)

( 3) General reference

Arch Camb 92 1937 145 (B H St J O'Neill)

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 VJB 31-DEC-57

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F2 ASP 18-OCT-74

( 6) General reference

BAR 20 pt2 Later Prehist from Trent-Tyne 1975, 47 (A J Challis and D W Harding)

( 7) General reference

OS 1:10 000 1981

(8) General reference

Wayne Cocroft, Paul Everson, Marcus Jecock, Stewart Ainsworth and Malcolm Reid/JAN-1991/RCHME: Staffordshire Hillforts Project

(8a) General reference

Toulmin Smith, L 1910 The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 Vol 5 (London)

RELATED MONUMENTS

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Description

MONUMENT NO. 75653
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Two mounds, probably Bronze Age round barrows.

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