Holmbury Hill is a wooded area of above sea level in Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and the site of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

-period

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

. The Old Saxon word "holm" can be translated as hill and "bury" means fortified place. It sits along the undulating

Greensand Ridge The Greensand Ridge, also known as the Wealden Greensand is an extensive, prominent, often wooded, mixed greensand/sandstone escarpment in south-east England. Forming part of the Weald, a former dense forest in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, it r ...

, its summit being from the elevated and tightly clustered small village of Holmbury St. Mary which was traditionally part of

Shere Shere is a village in the Guildford district of Surrey, England east south-east of Guildford and west of Dorking, centrally bypassed by the A25. It is a small still partly agricultural village chiefly set in the wooded ' Vale of Holmesdale' ...

, away.

Archaeology and history

Excavation of the hillfort in 1929 by classicist and amateur archeologist

S. E. Winbolt Samuel Edward Winbolt (1868–1944) was a British classics and history teacher, author and amateur archaeologist. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he subsequently returned as a master in classics an ...

indicated that it dated to the 1st Century AD and may have been constructed by Belgic tribes of

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

who were settling this part of

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in the period prior to the

Roman invasion of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Stan ...

. 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 Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a ...

on which the hill fort sits gives it a prominence over the

weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

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.

Geography

At Holmbury Hill is the fourth highest point in the county. It is west of

Leith Hill Leith Hill in southern England is the highest summit of the Greensand Ridge, approximately southwest of Dorking, Surrey and southwest of central London. It reaches above sea level, and is the second highest point in southeast England, after ...

, the highest point in Surrey at , separated by a deep ravine draining north and south. It is north-east of

Gibbet Hill, Hindhead Gibbet Hill, at Hindhead, Surrey, is the apex of the scarp surrounding the Devil's Punch Bowl, not far from the A3 London to Portsmouth road in England. Geography Gibbet Hill stands above sea level. It is the second highest hill in Surrey. ...

, the second highest point in Surrey at . The third highest point in the county is Botley Hill () to the north east in

Woldingham Woldingham is a village and civil parish high on the North Downs between Oxted and Warlingham in Surrey, England, within the M25, southeast of London. The village has 2,141 inhabitants, many of whom commute to London, making Woldingham part o ...

civil parish on the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...

, one of the two main hill ridges in Surrey. All of the other six highest peaks are in the

, which is separated by the

Vale of Holmesdale Holmesdale, also known as the Vale of Holmesdale, is a valley in South-East England that falls between the hill ranges of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge of the Weald, in the counties of Kent and Surrey. It stretches from Folkestone o ...

from the North Downs. The hills between Botley Hill and Gibbet Hill together comprise the Surrey Hills

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

. In total of surrounding forest, the Hurtwood SSSI, is maintained by the Friends of the Hurtwood which comprises: Holmbury Hill, Pitch Hill, Winterfold, Shere Heath, Farley Heath and part of

Blackheath Common Blackheath Common is an area of of heathland in Surrey, England, near the village of Albury in the borough of Waverley. It is part of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) ...

. The villages of

Peaslake Peaslake, Hoe, and Colman's Hill are in the centre of the Surrey Hills AONB and mid-west of the Greensand Ridge about ESE of Guildford. Surrounded by denser pine and other coniferous forest-clad hills, the three conjoined settlements have a ...

and Ewhurst are close by. The sedimentary sandstone bedrock of Holmbury Hill is part of the Hythe Beds, laid down in shallow seas approximately 113 to 126 million years ago in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

Period. The sandstone mass overlays the weaker

Atherfield Clay Formation The Atherfield Clay Formation is a Geological formation in Southern England. Part of the Lower Greensand Group it dates to the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous. The deposit is of marine origin largely consisting of massive yellowish brown to ...

, a sedimentary mudstone also laid down in the shallow seas of the Cretaceous. This combination is very prone to vertical landslip and gives rise to steep escarpments.Codd, J.W. (2007) ''Analysis of the distribution and characteristics of landslips in the Weald of East Sussex''. MSc dissertation, University of Brighton. The southern face of Holmbury Hill on which the fort is situated is made more imposing by the erosion resistant chert bands running through the Greensand. The chert was particularly valued in the 18th and 19th century as a building stone locally and quarries are found around the site of the fort. Quarrying added significantly to the other principal economic activity taking place on the hill such as timber production, turf cutting and gathering bracken and heather.English and & Field 1991-92.

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Sources

* * Dyer, James ''The Penguin Guide to Prehistoric England & Wales'' (1981), p. 237 {{coord, 51.1756, -0.4213, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Hill forts in Surrey Hills of Surrey