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Summary - not yet available

Monument Types

• HILLFORT (Later Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1200 BC to 49 AD)
• UNIVALLATE HILLFORT (Later Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1200 BC to 49 AD)

Protected Status

• Scheduled Ancient Monument 42:11946//29387
• SHINE: Wilbury Hill Hillfort
• Scheduled Ancient Monument 29387: SLIGHT UNIVALLATE HILLFORT ON WILBURY HILL
• Area of Archaeological Significance 88

Full description

Univallate hillfort comprising two enclosures. Internal features appear to be concentrated within eastern enclosure <1>. Occupation ranges from the late Bronze Age to the late Iron Age, with some evidence of Roman occupation including casual finds [1442] and a burial [4452] <2>. The rampart of the western enclosure is still visible as an earthwork 1.5m high along the eastern edge of the Stotfold road <3>. For details of internal features see [4415, 2722]. For numerous excavations see <2>.
It first consisted of a palisaded enclosure, built c.1000 BC. About 300 years later a massive bank and ditch with defended entrances were constructed, although its position is not ideal for defence; it is not on the hilltop, and extends down the slope to the south. These earthworks surrounded an enclosure full of buildings and pits, but the second enclosure added on the west side shortly after the first was not. After only about a century (at most) the ditches were infilled and houses built across them. The site continued to be occupied into the Roman period <10>.
For the cropmarks including possibly related external features, see <11>.

Letchworth Museum, Cropmarks at Wilbury Hill, Letchworth, PNO 3652 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14940.

Potato Marketing Board, Cropmarks of linear ditches associated with Wilbury hillfort, Letchworth, PNO 3543 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14831.

CUCAP, Cropmarks of Wilbury Hill hillfort, Letchworth, PNO 3561 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14849.

CUCAP, Cropmarks within Wilbury hillfort, Letchworth, PNO 3898 (Aerial Photograph). SHT15170.

Letchworth Museum, Earthworks and cropmarks of Wilbury Hill hillfort, Letchworth, PNO 3651 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14939.

CUCAP, Wilbury Hill hillfort and ring ditch, PNO 3065 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14287.

CUCAP, Wilbury Hill hillfort linear ditches & ring ditch, PNO 3067 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14289.

Potato Marketing Board, 1975, Cropmarks at Wilbury Hill of ditches and ring ditches, Letchworth, PNO 3549 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14837.

Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith J, & Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Tony, 2008, The archaeology of Hitchin from prehistory to the present, - p10-11 (Bibliographic reference). SHT2527.

<1> CUCAP, Cropmarks of internal features within Wilbury Hill fort, Letchworth, PNO 3103 (Aerial Photograph). SHT14325.

<2> Moss-Eccardt, John, 1964, Excavations at Wilbury Hill, an Iron Age hill-fort, near Letchworth, Herts 1959; Beds Archaeol J 2, 34-46 (Article in serial). SHT250.

<3> Applebaum, E S, 1951, Excavations at Wilbury Hill, an Iron-Age hill-fort near Letchworth, Hertfordshire, 1933; Archaeol J 106, p12-45 (Article in serial). SHT858.

<4> Applebaum, Erik S, 1934, Excavations at Wilbury Hill in 1933; British Archaeol Assoc J 39/2, 352-61 (Article in serial). SHT11865.

<5> Applebaum, Erik S, 1933, (Note on excavation at Wilbury Hill); Antiquity 7, p484 (Article in serial). SHT1691.

<6> Moss-Eccardt, John, 1968, Wilbury Hill, Letchworth; North Herts Antiquary 8 (Oct-Dec 1968), p2-4 (Article in serial). SHT198.

<7> Andrews, R T, 1904, Wilbury Hill and the Icknield Way; Trans East Herts Archaeol Soc 2/3, 279-89 (Article in serial). SHT3011.

<8> Newman, Paul, 1986, Material collected for information board, Includes ecology, by Trevor James (Unpublished document). SHT4619.

<9> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith J, & Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Tony, 2009, The archaeology of Letchworth Garden City, Summary, plan and photo, 20-21 (Bibliographic reference). SHT1698.

<10> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith, 2009, The archaeology of Norton <www.nortoncommarch.com>, Summary (Digital archive). SHT6100.

<11> Cox, Chris, 2008, ECML Hitchin Grade Separation: interpretation of aerial photographs for archaeology, RNO 2810 Plan 2 (Report). SHT9828.

Sources and further reading

Related records

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