The Mendip Hills
The Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) lies to the south of Bristol and covers a total of 198 sq km. The central feature of the Mendip Hills is the gently undulating Carboniferous Limestone plateau which rises to over 300m. The majority of the plateau is agriculturally improved pasture supporting scattered farmsteads, with compact villages located along the spring line below the steep escarpment slopes. English Heritage, in partnership with the Mendip Hills AONB and the relevant local authority heritage teams has recently embarked on a landscape-based research project aimed at enhancing our understanding of the historic environment of the AONB. The multi-disciplinary project involves various teams from within English Heritage, including Archaeological Survey and Investigation, Aerial Survey and Architectural Investigation, as well as external organisations and individuals. Through better understanding, and the existence of accurate baseline data, it is hoped that informed and sustainable management of the historic landscape can be achieved.
The second year of fieldwork on the project has now been completed and has proved as exciting and challenging as the first. Building on the research carried out in the previous year, further work has been undertaken recording and interpreting the later prehistoric enclosures within the Mendip Hills AONB. Dolebury Camp is located on the northern edge of the Mendip plateau and is an impressive hillfort with ramparts standing up to 5m high and enclosing and area of approximately 10 hectares. The interior of the hillfort contains a variety of features including half a dozen pillow mounds and the remains of a warrener’s house. At least 4 vermin traps were identified during our survey work one of which was located on top of a pillow mound, suggesting not all the pillow mounds were in use at the same time. A large-scale survey of Burledge hillfort, located above the eastern edge of the Chew Valley Lake, was also undertaken as part of our second winter of fieldwork. Our survey has highlighted the possibility that the impressive outwork to the east of the hillfort may in fact represent an earlier phase of construction. The substantial bank and ditch could represent the remains of a promontory enclosure within which a later sub-rectangular hillfort enclosure was created.
A substantial piece of work recording the extensive archaeological remains at Charterhouse has also been completed this year. The large-scale earthwork survey covers an area of approximately 64 hectares and includes the Roman fort, the amphitheatre site, and the remains of the Romano-British industrial settlement. The survey has helped reinterpret the fort site as a multi-phase monument, the earliest feature appearing to be a linear ditch which was remodelled to form a complete enclosure. Both these phases are almost certainly late-prehistoric in date and represent our best evidence so far of an existing community at Charterhouse prior to the Roman conquest. Our survey has also helped define for the first time the extent of the Romano-British settlement as well as identifying the remains of a series of later industrial features, most probably dating from the medieval or early post-medieval period. Romano-British remains have also been recorded at Wint Hill on the northern side of the Lox-Yeo valley. This site comprises a series of compounds and building platforms which can be seen to overlie an earlier ‘Celtic’ field system. The settlement remains have been dated through excavation to the 3-4th century AD, adding yet another layer to the development of this complex landscape.
Work examining the development of settlements on Mendip has also continued with a focus on the villages along the foot of the northern escarpment. The medieval castle of Richmont, East Harptree, was the focus of a large-scale survey which has helped unravel the surviving castle remains from the extensive later mining features. Our survey has again identified the possible remains of an earlier promontory enclosure which was re-used during the medieval period to form the boundary of the castle’s outer enclosure.
The final year of fieldwork is now underway and will hopefully generate as many new and exciting discoveries as the previous two years.
If you would like more information about this project please telephone Elaine Jamieson on (01392) 824901 or Mark Bowden on (01793) 414766. Email: elaine.jamieson@english-heritage.org.uk
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