Wadbury Camp is a

promontory fort A promontory fort is a fortification, defensive structure located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus using the topography to reduce the Rampart (fortification), ramparts needed. The oldest kno ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England that protected the mining district of the Mendip Hills in pre-Roman times. It seems to have been an outwork of the larger Tedbury Camp.

Location

Wadbury camp lies on a ridge to the north of the steep valley of the Mells Stream, called the Wadbury Valley. It is south of Newbury camp and west of Tedbury Camp, which is on the other side of the river. Newbury Camp, on an elevated knoll north of Wadbury, would have been used as a look-out post over the surrounding countryside. Tedbury Camp, covering an area of , must have been an important stronghold. Wadbury Camp, on the opposite side of the Mells Stream, to the northwest of Tedbury, seems to have been an outpost of the larger camp.

Description

The camp is a slight univallate hillfort, an elongated oval enclosure. It has a single rampart, outer ditch and

counterscarp A scarp and a counterscarp are the inner and outer sides, respectively, of a ditch or moat used in fortifications. Attackers (if they have not bridged the ditch) must descend the counterscarp and ascend the scarp. In permanent fortifications, the ...

bank on all but the western side, where it is protected by the steep bank of the ravine. The bank would have been high, with a ditch that has a revetment of stones below its counterscarp. The sides of the ridge are steep to the north and precipitous to the south and west. The approach from the east is flat. A scarp on the north survives, above a stony bank. There is a strong double rampart on the eastern side, and traces of another, but this was largely destroyed when ornamental gardens were built. There may have been an entrance in the northwest, but in this area a farm track has partly destroyed the outer bank. The gazetteer lists the fort as covering .

History

Wadbury Camp dates to between 800 BC and 43 AD. Tedbury, Wadbury and Newbury guarded the Avon and

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

rivers, and defended the roads and approaches to the mining district of the

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath, Somerset, Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the River Frome, Somerset ...

with its capital at Camalodunum long before the Roman Era. The present Wadbury House was built within the old fortification. There is a bank running in a north-south direction through the middle of the fort, and a low bank to the northwest of the house, both of which are modern. Today Wadbury camp is a scheduled monument. The ramparts survive but are no more than high, and in some places have been destroyed by quarries or buildings.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Hill forts in Somerset Scheduled monuments in Mendip District