The Banks and Ditches of the Hillfort - geograph

Kimsbury hill fort, also known as Castle Godwyn, Kimsbury Camp, Painswick Beacon or Painswick hill fort is an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

on Painswick Beacon near

Painswick Painswick is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew from the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's Taxus baccata, yew trees and the local Painswick House, Pain ...

in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

England.

Etymology

The name 'Kimsbury' is first attested in the period 1263–84 in the forms ''Kynemaresburia'' and ''Kynemaresbury''. These names derive from an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

name that can be reconstructed as *''Cynemǣres burh'' ('Cynemǣr's fortification'). The name ''Castle Godwyn'' seems to be later: the hillfort is referred to simply as 'Castle' in 1327, with the name 'Castle Godwyn' first being attested in 1779.

History and topography

The interior has been extensively

quarried A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

and parts are now a golf course, but much remains of the ramparts. Though there have been problems of erosion. Kimsbury hill fort Digital Terrain Model

Kimsbury hill fort Digital Terrain Model

The hill fort has been dated to the first century

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

pastscape retrieved 4 April 2015
/ref> and is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

.stroud.gov retrieved 5 April 2015
Pottery, coins and other archaeological finds have been found dating from the Iron Age through to the 3rd century CE in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

era. File:Painswick hill fort - geograph.org.uk - 719683.jpg, The ramparts with a view of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

in the distance. File:Greens inside the Hillfort - geograph.org.uk - 986402.jpg, Part of Painswick Golf Course inside the inner rampart

Etymology

History and topography

References

Further reading