Holmbury Hill

Holmbury Hill is a wooded area of 261 metres above sea level in Surrey, England, and the site of an Iron Age-period hillfort. The Old Saxon word "holm" can be translated as hill and "bury" means fortified place. It sits along the undulating Greensand Ridge, its summit being 805 feet from the elevated and tightly clustered small village of Holmbury St. Mary which was traditionally part of Shere, 8 kilometres away.

Excavation of the hillfort in 1929 by classicist and amateur archeologist S. E. Winbolt indicated that it dated to the 1st Century AD and may have been constructed by Belgic tribes of Celts who were settling this part of Britain in the period prior to the Roman invasion of Britain. Later research, however, suggests that the fort was occupied earlier from 100 to 70 BC. The fort was defended by double ramparts to the west and north with escarpments on the eastern and southern slopes. The outer ditches were originally about three metres deep and six metres wide. The inner ditches were considerably larger, some four metres deep and nine metres wide. These earthworks may have had a symbolic function in addition to a purely military one. The hard band of chert on which the hill fort sits gives it a prominence over the weald that may have served as an assertion of control and security over the trade routes through the area. There is no evidence to suggest long-term occupation of the fort but it would have offered a safe and obvious place to meet, trade and host communal activity.

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