More information : "Within a mile of the market town of King's Clere is an antient square camp, and some remains of a large building said to have been a castle ["King John's House", SU 55 NW 26] and to have belonged to the West Saxon and Danish kings. By it FREEMANTLE in a park .....". (1)
"The BOWRY WALLS, near Kingsclere, Hants.
This entrenchment is on the top of a hill in Freemantle Park
about 1 1/2 miles S.E. above Kingsclere. There is a single ditch
and bank enclosing about 15 acres, of which about 2 acres has
been surrounded by an inner ditch and bank, and has been
covered with buildings, the foundations made with flint
appearing very plain. In the middle is a small round hillock
with a hollow at the top .......... ". (2)
I have been able to trace the outline of a camp on Cottington's
Hill, no doubt one of the two [sic] mentioned in Gough's Camden
as being on the hill above Kingsclere. Single bank and ditch,
it is least destroyed in the hedge on the south side, where the
bank is 3' high and has a drop of 8' to the field outside. It
was probably on I.A `A' entrenchment, but it can never have
been very strong. (3)
Hill-fort. (4)
Centred at SU 52605676: The remains of a very much mutilated,
univallate, near-circular earthwork enclosing c. 9 acres of the
summit of Cottington's Hill. The area is chalk downland, the
ground falling away steeply, to the north and less steeply to
the south: along the ridge, to east and west, the ground is level.
The remains are best seen on the north where the earthwork
originally comprised a bank and outer ditch with counterscarp
bank. The bank however has been deliberately levelled,
presumably to improve the view from the hunting lodge, and much
of the material deposited in the ditch.
Near the middle of this stretch the surviving scarp of the bank
has been inturned for c. 30 m. That this is neither original nor
an approach to the old chalk pit to which it seems to lead is
proved by the absence of any road to it up the steep slope, by
the absence of any interruption of the counterscarp bank
outside, and by its considerable width: it is probably a
mutilation connected with the hunting lodge.
No trace of an entrance was seen: the most suitable sites would
be at the east and west ends, along the line of the ridge.
Despite extensive mutilation, the result of the construction of
a Royal Hunting Lodge (SU 55 NW 26) and later chalk digging,
this earthwork, may safely be classified as a uni-vallate hill
fort of IRON AGE `A' date. (5)
No change; surveyed at 1/2500. (6)
(SU 52605676) Settlement (NR). (7)
Part of the earthwork has been destroyed by construction of a
reservoir, - part by a wireless station and part ploughed out.
What remains is as described. 1,2500 Survey revised. (8)
SU 526 567. Bowry Walls. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 3.6ha. (9) |