Sutton Bank Hillfort

YORKSHIRE'S LARGEST HILLFORT (AND ITS LEAST WELL KNOWN!)  
Sutton Bank, or Roulston Scar to give its precise name, is well known as the home of Kilburn White Horse, created in 1857, and of the Yorkshire Glider Club, founded in 1933. But very few people are aware that the promontory is also the site of one of the most important prehistoric monuments in the region: a massive hillfort built in the Iron Age, around 400 BC. Recent research by English Heritage's Landscape Investigation Team, carried out in partnership with the North York Moors National Park Authority, cast important new light on the remains of the fort. Careful examination of the earthworks that can still be seen on the surface has revealed that the hillfort is much more extensive than had previously been believed, covering an area of more than 60 acres (24 hectares), and that some of the unrecognised stretches of the defences survive to more than 9 feet (2.7m) in height. So why has such a large and imposing monument not been discovered before?

 In fact, some stretches had actually been recognised: parts of the northern and eastern sides of the fort were re-used as field boundaries when the moorland was first 'enclosed' in the early 19th Century. But when it came to the first truly archaeological investigation, which was carried out by the field surveyors of the Ordnance Survey in 1853, only the largest stretch of the massive bank and ditch was mapped. The eastern end of this earthwork lay close to the western end of another bank and ditch and later archaeologists - including those employed by the Ordnance Survey itself - relied so heavily on the work done by the first map-makers that the two adjacent earthworks came to be interpreted as parts of a single boundary. Consequently, no serious attempt was made to search for any continuation of the real perimeter of the fort. In the light of the new investigation by English Heritage, the second bank and ditch seem more likely to be of much later date than the fort - perhaps a medieval land boundary. In the late 1960s, most of the defences, as they were known to exist at that date, were bulldozed to make way for an extension of the glider runway and the present circular clubhouse. Excavations were carried out which proved that the bank and ditch represented the remains of a 'box rampart', a massive wall-like barrier fronted by a timber palisade up to 12 feet (3.6m) high. This type of defence was known to be typical of early Iron Age hillforts, yet still the penny did not entirely drop as to precisely what kind of monument had been revealed. And it looked as though almost the last vestiges of the defences had been destroyed.

In 1960, one lone voice, that of the prehistorian Nicholas Thomas, had commented that wartime aerial photographs  taken under low evening sunshine revealed the shadow of the earthwork along the eastern side of the fort, suggesting that the perimeter may have been complete. But his observation went largely overlooked and it is only now that Thomas' guess has been proved correct. The analytical survey by English Heritage has traced the prehistoric rampart not just along the eastern side of the promontory but around its entire edge - a distance of 1.3 miles - so that the defences actually surround both the clubhouse of Yorkshire Gliding Club and Kilburn White Horse. Despite this great leap forward in our understanding, the function of the fort remains something of a mystery. While it may have been a temporary refuge in times of trouble, or a giant corral for livestock, there is no evidence for settlement in the form of the level, circular platforms that are commonly visible within Iron Age forts, which were built to support round houses. Nor did the excavations of the late 1960s unearth any fragments pot or bone which might usually be expected in some quantities. It would seem that the monument, for all its vast size and outward impression of impregnability, was an empty shell. However, as the thousands of walkers who pass through the fort following the Cleveland Way all appreciate, Roulston Scar commands a fine view; conversely, as Thomas Taylor, the creator of Kilburn White Horse appreciated even better, it is visible from far away. This may offer a clue to the primary purpose of the monument: perhaps it was built as literally a 'landmark' - a highly visible territorial claim staked on the edge of the North York Moors.

 Support for this theory comes from the location of the fort in relation to the map of tribal society, as far as we understand it for this remote period of prehistory. By the late Iron Age, when we have some documentary evidence in the form of the writings of classical historians, the Moors seem to have formed the boundary between the tribe of the Parisi to the south and the Brigantes to the north. Although it is not safe to assume that the tribal situation was identical nearly 500 years earlier, when the hillfort was built, English Heritage's investigation of the humps and bumps also revealed the slight remains of what appears to be a 'square barrow', much degraded by 19th-century ploughing. This form of burial monument, which comprised a small square mound enclosed by a shallow ditch, became popular in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and was apparently confined exclusively to the area that was later recorded as the territory of the Parisi. So there are clues that the hillfort at Roulston Scar may have stood on the northern edge of the territory held by the Parisi, long before that tribe is first recorded by name. What better place than such a boundary for a display of power?

Looking to the future, there are a number of possibilities as to how research may progress. Digging, for the time being, is out of the question. The first step may be to carry out a geophysical survey of the strip along the eastern side of the interior, which English Heritage's work has shown to be the best preserved area. Geophysical techniques, now well-known through Channel 4's Time Team programme, enable archaeologists to 'see' beneath the surface, revealing features such as hearths and other remains associated with settlement that are not visible on the surface, but without disturbing them in any way. It may also be the right time to re-examine the finds from the excavations carried out in the 1960s and to apply all the modern scientific techniques that were not available more than thirty years ago. But above all, the National Park's intention is to make the information that we now have more accessible to the public. Tens of thousands of visitors each year walk back and forth to Kilburn White Horse, quite unaware they are following a route perhaps patrolled by Iron Age sentries two and a half thousand years ago.

The full report (ref.: AI/11/2001) can be ordered online. To find out more about the research, contact Alastair Oswald in English Heritage's York office on 01904 601 901 or e-mail  al.oswald@english-heritage.org.uk