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Excavations at Titterstone Clee Hill Camp, Shropshire, 1932

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

B. H. St. J. O'Neil
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Extract

Titterstone Clee Hill lies some five miles due east of Ludlow. It is crowned by a camp which comprises the whole of the comparatively flat top, measuring about ½ mile from east to west and ⅓ mile from north to south. In area (71 acres) and in elevation (1,749 ft. at its summit) it is abnormal amongst hill-forts in Great Britain; both these facts have important bearings on the excavation of 1932, particularly on the lack of finds (see p. 30).

A full discussion of its topographical features and environs will be published shortly in Archaeologia Cambrensis. It will be sufficient here to call attention to the camps on Brown Clee Hill and the connexion between them and Titterstone; and to the main East–West trackway, which passes close under the rampart of the latter. The two main branches of this track to the west are well attested for the prehistoric period, and there can be little doubt that the camp on Titterstone was placed to command their point of junction.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 1934 , pp. 13 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1934

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References

page 13 note 1 Information from Miss L. F. Chitty, Local Secretary for Shropshire; see also Shrop. Arch. Trans., 1926, pp. 233 ff.; 1927, Misc. v; 1929, pp. 62–3.

page 13 note 2 The measurements of the section taken here (pl. VIII) are accurate on the surface only; the remainder were computed from the section at the quarry face.

page 15 note 1 The Company through their Chairman, Sir Henry Maybury, and General Manager, Mr. D. J. E. Mackay, to whom warm thanks are due, very generously paid half the cost of the work, the remainder being defrayed by H.M. Commissioners of Works under the Ancient Monuments Act, 1931. Moreover the staff rendered every possible assistance; mention should be made especially of the Assistant Manager, Mr. A. W. S. Pring, and Messrs. W. Hancocks, E. Everall, S. Taylor, and the two George Lloyds.

page 15 note 2 The excavators, the present writer and his colleague Mr. R. S. Simms, desire to express their gratitude for assistance rendered on the site by Messrs. G. W. Huzzey, H. Noel Jerman, John Charlton, and J. T. D. Musson, and in respect of the plan of the entrance by Mr. C. N. Johns, Field-Archaeologist, Department of Antiquities, Palestine. In addition they would like to thank those archaeologists who, whilst visiting the site, helped with suggestions: Mr. J. P. Bushe-Fox, Professor V. Gordon Childe, Dr. Cyril Fox, Dr. Willoughby Gardner, Mr. D. W. Philips, and Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler; also Mr. C. A. Ralegh Radford for help during the compilation of this report.

page 15 note 3 Report forthcoming in Arch. Camb.

page 15 note 4 All measurements along the rampart are taken along its crest from the east side of Section D, the position of which will be found on the plan of the South Entrance (pls. ix, x).

page 16 note 1 Arch. Camb., lxxxi, 259.

page 16 note 2 Deliberate overthrow of the defences at Roman command is another possible explanation.

page 17 note 1 The fact that one of these is oval is, probably, only due to the difficulty of digging such a hole in subsoil full of large boulders.

page 17 note 2 The trench actually passed between two post-holes, but these were located and three of them traced. The nearest has been drawn on the section for the sake of clarity.

page 18 note 1 It is not the remains of turf, but must have been obtained from one of the pockets of clay which abound on the hill.

page 18 note 2 In pls. ix and x the solid black represents the actual site of the post, the thick circle shows the diameter at 3 in. from the bottom and the thin circle the diameter at the top, where this was ascertained.

page 18 note 3 Prior to excavation this was completely covered with fallen blocks which extended as far down as the right-hand hole in the illustration.

page 19 note 1 v. p. 20. As there, the clay probably represents decomposed turf.

page 19 note 2 Analysis of a sample disclosed the very slightest trace of actual vegetable fragments and also a fair amount of carbon from organic matter.

page 20 note 1 All the pieces of this wall are now vertical or lean outward, owing to pressure from behind.

page 20 note 2 All these measurements are from the site of its outer face.

page 20 note 3 Approximately as marked on the plan.

page 20 note 4 Although the axis of the entrance is not actually north and south, it is treated as such for the sake of brevity.

page 22 note 1 Natural clay not decomposed turf according to analysis; the full extent of the larger patch could not be determined.

page 23 note 1 Cf. Hembury, Devon Arch. Exploration Soc. i, part 4 (forthcoming).

page 24 note 1 Proc. Hants. Field Club, xi, 60 and fig. 7.

page 24 note 2 It is possible that hole no. 10 was still in use. The eastern pair of posts at the gate described below would, of course, form the upper end of this revetment.

page 25 note 1 All this walling is of the good type as used in the Entrance.

page 26 note 1 This hole was extended northwards as shown, when it was cut in the subsoil. It may have joined hole no. 18, but, owing to the latter being dug in the earlier filling, certainty is impossible.

page 27 note 1 The presence of a piece of wood apparently in a horizontal position at the bottom of the hole suggests that it may have split or broken.

page 28 note 1 A possible site of this is marked by a deposit of clay of Period I, and it is quite likely that the original post still stood here and was utilized.

page 28 note 2 The packing round the circumference of the post-holes has been brought up exactly to this level. It consists of this yellow subsoil once disturbed, but it has been rammed so hard, that it is frequently distinguished with difficulty from the undisturbed ground.

page 29 note 1 Both are straight sided, the larger is 12 in. deep and 9 in. in diameter, and the smaller 6 in. deep and 6 in. in diameter. They are dug in the hard yellow subsoil. They are incorrectly placed for stops, against which the gate would open back. The larger hole appeared to have been delibarately filled with stones.

page 30 note 1 Probably following Hartshorne (Salopia Antiqua, 1838), who had a ‘druidical obsession’. The spots marked are certainly the only ones to which Hartshorne can have referred.

page 30 note 2 A usual level of cloud in summer is at c. 1,300 ft. above O.D.

page 31 note 1 Arch. Camb., 1926, 221 ff.

page 31 note 2 Antiquity, 1931, 78.

page 31 note 3 Archaeologia, lxxvi, 205.

page 31 note 4 J. R. Anthrop. Inst. x, 319 h.

page 31 note 5 P.S.A. xx, 183.

page 32 note 1 The exact site is close to the west side of the upper incline at Titterstone Quarries, a few yards down from its top. There were no associated finds, and no other finds have occurred in the quarry.

page 32 note 2 For confirmation of this dating the writer has to thank Dr. R. E. M. Wheeler, who saw the spear-head in 1928. See also London and the Vikings (London Museum, Catalogue I), p. 27.