HER 261 DESCRIPTION:- Scheduled Monument Description:- Summary of Monument Large multivallate hillfort on Uley Bury 325m south east of Springfield Farm. Reasons for Designation Large multivallate hillforts are defined as fortified enclosures of between 5ha and 85ha in area, located on hills and defined by two or more lines of concentric earthworks set at intervals of up to 15m. They date to the Iron Age period, most having been constructed and used between the sixth century BC and the mid-first century AD. They are generally regarded as centres of permanent occupation, defended in response to increasing warfare, a reflection of the power struggle between competing elites. Earthworks usually consist of a rampart and ditch, although some only have ramparts. Access to the interior is generally provided by two entrances although examples with one and more than two have been noted. These may comprise a single gap in the rampart, inturned or offset ramparts, oblique approaches, guardrooms or outworks. Internal features generally include evidence for intensive occupation, often in the form of oval or circular houses. These display variations in size and are often clustered, for example, along streets. Four- and six-post structures, interpreted as raised granaries, also occur widely while a few sites appear to contain evidence for temples. Other features associated with settlement include platforms, paved areas, pits, gullies, fence lines, hearths and ovens. Additional evidence, in the form of artefacts, suggests that industrial activity such as bronze- and iron-working as well as pottery manufacture occurred on many sites. Large multivallate hillforts are rare with around 50 examples recorded nationally. These occur mostly in two concentrations, in Wessex and the Welsh Marches, although scattered examples occur elsewhere. They are rare and important for understanding the nature of social organisation within the Iron Age period. Despite some quarrying and cultivation the large multivallate hillfort on Uley Bury, 325m south east of Springfield Farm, survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its multi-phase use, territorial and strategic significance, social organisation, domestic arrangements, agricultural practices, trade, longevity, construction and overall landscape context it is also one of the largest in the Cotswold region. History See Details. Details This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 8 July 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. The monument includes a large multivallate hillfort situated on and occupying the entire summit of a distinctive and steeply sloping Cotswold plateau which forms the watershed between the valleys of the River Ewelme and one of its major tributaries. The hillfort survives as a roughly rectangular enclosure covering approximately 23ha which is defined by double terraces and augmented steep scarp slopes with slight banks above and which has a main entrance to the north and smaller ones to the east and south. In 1976 excavation works prior to the laying of pipelines produced a crouched burial, indicated one of the entrances was turf and timber lined with a metalled road and produced Iron Age pottery, shale armlets, a glass bead, a bronze ring headed pin and two Iron Age currency bars. Further evidence in the form of well over 2000 flint artefacts indicates the presence of a pre Iron Age settlement on the summit, probably of Neolithic origin {Source Work 2873.} Sub-rectangular bivallate hill-fort about 600 x 200 meters internally generally flat with the longer sides surviving and generally parallel. It is likely that the defences were constructed by terracing the already steep natural slopes as there is no inner facing scarp adjoining the interior of the fort and only a small bank adjoining the berm at the foot of the first rampart. A narrow berm with vestiges of a counter-scarp indicates the extent of the second rampart. The earthwork is mutilated in places by quarrying. 1876 - Roman coins found on the north-east slope of Uley Bury were shown at the inaugural meeting of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological society in 1876 by Mr W. G. Phillimore. 1913- The barrow was suggested by the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club to be worthy of scheduling. {Source Work 3637.} 1971- There are entrances at three corners of the fort; the main one in the north where a narrow neck of land joins the spur to the main mass of the Cotswolds. The remaining smaller entrances in the east and south cut through the outer rampart only. It is possible that there was another entrance gap in the outer rampart at ST78289888 though this may be the result of later working. {Source Work 862.} Access from the north is by way of a col, the inturned ends of the banks with a short hollow way lying obliquely across it. Outside the northern entrance a series of banks and ditches across the col have been noted, but most of these have gone, and the surviving features appear natural. At the eastern corner overlapping banks ends are associated with a hollow way, and at the damaged southern entrance is another hollow way, which is flanked on the west by a downward extension of the bank, and by two partly artificial mounds. Roads shown on the OS 1" map of 1830 passed through the southern and eastern entrances and traversed the eastern terrace. 1971 - OS - The bronze mask mentioned by A H Church cannot now be identified. {Source Work 862.} Roman coins found on the north-eastern slope by RCHM - in Gloucester Museum. {Source Work 403.} 1971 - Other surface finds - stone axe fragment and six flint flakes including two small blades - in Cheltenham Museum. {Source Work 3472.} 1976 Rescue excavations on Uley Bury hillfort in advance of and during the laying of a water pipe between the north and east entrances. Trenches 1 and 2. The pipe trench, having passed through the northern entrance traversed the north eastern terrace along a modern track. This terrace consists of the remains of the rampart along the eastern edge which was variable in size according to the preservation. Two machine cuts were opened to better locate the pipe trench away from archaeological deposits although neither of them conclusively demonstrated the constructional details of the defences. Due to its location it was possible to better excavate Trench 2 and the initial construction of the rampart was represented by the what seemed likely to be turf and associated topsoil and subsoil forming a basically earthen core to the bank. No post-holes or evidence of timber framing were noted. Iron Age pottery gives a basic terminus post quem for the rampart. Trench 3. This trench was located where a footpath had cut down to the bedrock in the eastern entrance and where it was feared the machine digging the water trench would damage structural elements of the hillfort. The only structural element turned out to be the rampart set well back at the top of the slope. A single Iron Age sherd was recovered. This trench showed that the rampart on the west side was constructed upon what is almost certainly an articially levelled area but its original Iron Age profile was not apparent. Trench 4. A small hand-dug cutting was located on the lower north eastern terrace below trench 2 to dtermine the nature of the lower terrace. As with trench 1 the unexpected depth of stratigraphy prevented the reaching of bedrock. The only significant aspect of the section was that it established the artificial nature of the terrace. There was no positive indication that any rampart existed on the terrace. A single Iron Age sherd was recovered. Trench 5. Trench 5 allowed the examination of the layers in plan and allowed a 5 phase subdivision to be created: Downward construction of the rampart; Turf banked entrance passage, the upper surfaces of which contained Iron Age pottery, animal bone, two bronze objects and a blue glass bead. The Iron Age surface of the entrance passage itself contained 29 Iron Age Sherds, 2 bronze ornaments, a ring-headed pin and a penannular brooch. Outer rampart and walk-way Post medieval track Modern path Water Pipe Trench: The excavation of the pipe trench recovered Iron Age and Romano-British pottery, fired clay, a shaped wooden object and a bronze hair clip. The most important stray finds were two iron currency bars, an unusual iron fitting, a polished bone handle, a fragment of worked shale and part of a perforated clay loom weight. These are all probably of Iron Age date. Two areas of the trench were examined by excavation: Burial: Between trenches 2 and 5 there was a crouched inhumation burial positioned well above the level of the upper Iron Age terrace of the defences and therefore probably dating to the Roman or sub-Roman periods Iron Age pit: A hand excavated pit within the limits of the pipe trench contained Iron Age pottery, fired clay, flints, animal bones and a large quantity of slag. It was not possible to offer a detailed re-construction of the rampart on the upper terrare because of the incomplete exploration of this feature during the present excavations. All that could be said was that the rampart was basically of rubble core type, with a dry stone wall facing. Despite their restrictive nature, however, the 1976 excavations produced a significantly large body of artefacts for UleyBury to be considered one of the better known Cotswold hillforts. {Source Work 3473 & 7172.} A radiocarbon sample from the 1976 excavations is discussed in Source Work 13944 1976 - Saville - Interior of hillfort completely ploughed. Field walking produced no Iron Age material. Defences relatively well preserved though subject to scarp edge erosion on south-western side. Interior arable, ramparts grass covered. {Source Work 470.} South-eastern entrance of camp planned by WGHR at 20'=1". In plan cabinet at Gloucester City Museum . {Source Work 3474.} An un-described Dobunnic gold slater (Allen's Type British R A), together with more than 150 Roman coins ranging from 2nd to 4th century AD. 1976 - Saville- Majority of site ploughed. {Source Work 470.} 1976 - "The RCHME undertook this project in 1976 to form part of an article by Hampton J and Palmer R, "Implications of Aerial Photography for Archaeology" in Archaeological Journal 134, 1977, pp 157-193. The area covers Uleybury Hillfort, approximately 17 hectares, in the parish of Uley, Gloucestershire. A detailed air photo interpretation of this site was carried out, and a plan produced at 1:2,500 using graphical transcription methods. The plan is used to illustrate the variations in cropmarks that can be expected from year to year. The archive consists of a plan (Collection UID 904022)." {Source Work 4249.} 1990 - Site visited by C Parry of Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service on 17/08/1990 following reports of damage to 500m of the lower defensive terrace on the north-western side of Uley Bury hillfort. A trackway had been driven along the terrace. It entered the scheduled area at the northern end of the terrace, running south-westwards along it for a distance of approximately 450m before curving upslope as far as a post and wire fence delineating the edge of the upper defensive terrace. The trackway appears to have been constructed along a narrower pre-existing trackway along the terrace, which was enlarged to a width of between 3m-6m by cutting back into the hillslope and depositing spoil on the downslope side. Upslope, the operation left vertical sections for the most part c.0.5m high, but sections up to 1.8m high were observed where the trackway began its ascent to the upper terrace. Bedrock formed the majority of the material visible in section, with up to 0.4m of soil visible above {Source Work 2537}. 1993 - The site was subject to Scheduled Monument Consent (SMC) Application for replacement of a stile. The stile is located at ST7830098927 and situated on the western side of the camp's defensive circuit at a point just below the lower defensive terrace. The replacement of the stile took place on 24.6.1993 the work carried out by volunteers under the supervision of J Cherrington of the County Council's Countryside Section. The work was observed by C Parry of the County Council's Archaeology Section. The posts supporting the old stile were pulled out and the circular holes were re-excavated to a diameter of 0.2m and a depth of 0.45m. The new stile was then inserted and the holes packed with upcast stones. Two smaller holes c0.15m in diameter by 0.3m deep, were then excavated into ground not previously disturbed to insert posts for the steps, these too were backfilled with upcast. The excavation revealed a thin humic topsoil lying upon a natural limestone subsoil. No finds of any date were found during excavation. Disturbance was limited to the areas of the holes, no intrusion into significant archaeological deposits was observed {Source Work 2653.} 1992 - A watching brief to observe the excavation of postholes in connection with the erection of car park barriers, at the parking area at the N of the camp, was undertaken in July/August 1992. This was at the main northern entrance of the camp. A few fragments of burnt limestone and animal bone were recovered. The site archive was deposited with Stroud Museum in the Park under Acc No STGCM 2012.23 {Source Work 2697.}{Negatives and contact prints archived at Stroud Museum 2012. TG) Part of a sandstone pin polisher found, now in Stroud Museum. {Source Work 2862.} CBA petrology index number 1231, county number 48. {Source Work 8502.} 1994 - The pottery analyzed from the site was found to be 29.2% non-local, regionally distributed by weight and 70.8% locally made pottery by weight. {Source Work 8484.} 1998 - TG and JW site visit with Robin Nicol (FRCA) on 15/01/1998. Discussed the possibility of removing the area within the ramparts from cultivation or reducing the intensity of cultivation. As the landowner was already being asked to remove a 10m strip around Hetty Peglers Tump from cultivation and had a management agreement affecting the intensity of agriculture on the Uley Romano British temple site to the north-east, this was thought unfeasible and JW asked that, at least, plough encroachment into the internal ramparts be limited. 1999 - A site visit was made by Charles Parry of Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service prompted by a telephone report of damage being caused to the northern defences during tree felling works. Tree felling works were ongoing outside the monument on the lower slopes of the north-western side of the hill during the visit but had evidently been undertaken within the SAM where several hundred meters of the upper and lower defensive terraces had been utilised as large wheeled access tracks into the woodland, with the result that deep wheel ruts had been created. The upper defensive terrace was the most severely affected, the wheel ruts there measuring up to 0.25m deep. Shallower and discontinuous rutting was also present on the lower terrace. Photographs were taken. The depth of the rutting in places suggested that archaeological deposits were likely to have been adversely affected, although no firm evidence of this could be observed due to the muddy conditions. No evidence of deliberate earthmoving was observed and all ground disturbance appeared to relate to the movement of vehicles. {Source Work 484.} 2001 - Site visited by Richard Massey of English Heritage on 12th October 2001. Long-recorded history of cultivation in interior (i.e. at least since 19th century). Now continuous cultivation, including some set-aside. Shallow plough depth - c, 15 cm. Relatively shallow soil cover: typical Cotswold plateau soil with high clay fraction and stone inclusion. Some evidence of subsoil disturbance in places. Hillfort interior comprises almost level ground with slight undulations on East side. Little evidence of colluviation, although probable that ramparts have formed effective contoured barrier against surface run-off and erosion. AP evidence suggests substantial survival of below-ground archaeology, including subtle features indicating occupation horizons. No evidence of surface artefacts in small sample of site examined. Possible that earlier ploughing has created a `cut and fill' buffer zone and that, after initial disturbance, prognosis for survival of stratigraphy below current plough-zone is relatively favourable {Source Work 7244}. 2002 - A watching brief was undertaken by Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service on 14th -15th March 2002 in connection with the re-excavation of a bridleway by Gloucestershire Public Rights of Way officers. Up to 200mm was excavated along a trackway which was c.3m wide and c.600m long. The topsoil was only bottomed occasionally. The main concern was that 500 tonnes of gravel was to be spread across the area and the soil was very wet which might result in wheel damage and the contractors had no instruction to remove the excavated spoil from the site so it was spread on the low outer bank. {Source Works 484, 7127.} A radiocarbon date was obtained from charcoal samples (Quercus, Corylus/Alnus, Salix/Populus, Pomoideae, Prunus, Acer,Sambucus) from the base of terrace make-up on this site and are listed in Source Work 14058. 2004 - Cotswold Archaeology undertook a programme of archaeological monitoring at Uley Bury, Uley between September and December. The work was undertaken as part of a management plan to enhance the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Uley Bury and SSSI, by reducing the number of trees on the ramparts, reverting the interior of the hillfort from arable to grassland and the sustainable management of the resulting environment. The work identified substantial deposits of crushed limestone dating to the Iron Age. These probably represent the re-deposition of displaced bedrock during the hillforts construction. A sherd of pottery found in these deposits was dated to the Iron Age, which suggested that the hillfort was possibly further re-modelled between 100BC - AD43. Two 18th -19th pottery sherds found in the same deposits were interpreted as indicative of the erosion on the hillfort. The foundation of a Romano-British wall (trench 9) was also seen at the outer edge of the hillfort's south-eastern terrace. This confirmed that the site was re-used or continued in use in the Roman period. The purpose of the wall was not established due to the small size of the work undertaken. It was also not possible to see when the wall was demolished. {Source Work 8784.} 2015 - Severn Vale NMP Project. The hillfort referred was mapped from aerial photographs and lidar imagery as part of the Severn Vale NMP project. Aerial photographs (Source work, 14296) as mentioned revealed a series of cropmarks within the interior of the hillfort. Some of the features were faint but they comprised many ring ditches, some are conjoined, and six rectilinear enclosures. The majority of ring ditches are about 13-15metres in diameter and possibly represent Iron Age round houses, however there is evidence for Bronze Age and Roman occupation andsome of the features may date to these periods too. A more well defined ring ditch (centred at ST 78376 98929) is 26metres in diameter and could be the levelled remains of a Bronze Age barrow. The cropmarks reveal a substantial Prehistoric settlement. {Source Works 4249, 13085, 14296} 2019 - This monument was previously recorded within the Historic England National Record of the Historic Environment. That record, formerly held within the AMIE database, is quoted below: "Uley Bury, the finest of the Cotswold hill-forts, covers about 32 acres, and is bivallate on all four sides. Further down the hill-slope on all sides there is scarping or terracing which appears to have been constructed as an extra defence, and for part of the SW side this develops into a third rampart. North of the north angle, where there may have been an original entrance, there are three extra defences. Other entrances may have been where the footpath from Crawley breaches the outer rampart, and in the south corner. Finds from the camp include an uninscribed Dobunic gold stater (Gloucester City Museum) a quern of Roman date (Stroud Museum) and a bronze mask in low relief (Corinium Museum). (2-4) ST 78509895. Uley Bury is a sub-rectangular bivallate hill-fort about 600 x 200 metres internally, generally flat with the longer sides surving and generally parallel. It is likely that the defences were constructed by terracing the already steep natural slopes as there is no inner facing scarp adjoining the interior of the fort and only a small bank adjoining the berm at the foot of the first rampart. A norrow berm with vestiges of a counterscarp indicates the entent of the second rampart. The earthwork is mutilated in places by quarrying. There are entrances at three corners of the fort; the main one in the north, where a narrow neck of land joins the spur to the main mass of the Cotswolds. The remaining smaller entrances in the east and south cut through the outer rampart only. It is possible that there was another entrance gap in the outer rampart at ST 78289888, though this may be the result of later working. Published 1:2500 survey revised. (5) Access from the north is by way of a col, the inturned ends of the banks with a short hollow-way lying obliquely across it. Outside the north entrance a series of banks and ditches across the col have been noted (Arch 19 1821, Plate XI), but most of these have gone, and the surviving features appear natural. At the east corner overlapping bank ends are associated with a hollow-way, and at the damaged south entrance is another hollow-way, which is flanked on the west by a downward extension of the bank, and by two partly artificial mounds. Roads shown on the OS 1" map of 1830 passed through the S and E entrances and traversed the eastern terrace. APs show crop-marks of ditched enclosures inside the hill-fort. The bronze mask mentioned by A H Church cannot now be identified. (6) NMR air photogaphs revealed crop marks of the internal detail of Uleybury hillfort. See plan. (8-9) Published report of 1976 excavation. The crouched burial is suggested as having been deposited during the Roman or sub-Roman periods. Cheltenham Museum houses an extensive collection of over 2000 flint artefacts from Uley Bury, mainly from the Paine Collection, which include arrowheads, scrapers, knapping debris and 11 fragments from polished implements. These point to the existence of a substantial pre-iron Age settlement on the hill-top. (10) The site of Uley Bury has yielded large quantities of Neolithic Stonework. (11) ST 784 989. Uley Bury Hill-Fort, univallate, unexcavated..The bank encloses 38 acres, 6 acres of which are occupied by the terrace described below. The bank, up to 35ft wide and 4ft high, stands along the edges of a terrace, 30ft to 60ft wide overall, probably created by the digging out of material to create the bank. A scarp 3ft to 13ft high rises from the inner side of the terrace to the level interior, now arable. Externally, the scarp falls from the bank an average of 30ft to a greatly disturbed narrow ledge, apparently not a ditch, but probably associated with the defences. There are three entrances. [Further details, plan and profile of bank and ditch included. The terrace and narrow ledge described above may account for the interpretation of the fort as a univallate structure, contrasting with earlier authorities suggestions of a bivallate enclosure]. (13)" {Source Work 4249.} "Fourteen Neolithic axe fragments, some reused as scrapers, were found at ST 785990. Some have been deposited in the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum and others in the Stroud Museum. (1)" {Source Work 4249 UID 205241.} |