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The Iron-Age Hill-fort and Romano-British Iron-working Settlement at Garden Hill, Sussex: Interim Report on Excavations, 1968–76

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

J. H. Money
J. H. Money
Affiliation:
25 Philbeach Gardens, London SW5 9DY
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Extract

The earthwork at Garden Hill, Hartjield, East Sussex, until then unrecognised, was identified in 1968 by Mr C. F. Tebbutt, who found early Romano-British material in a trial excavation. Five seasons of excavation (1972–76) by the Garden Hill Excavation Group have established the broad outline of the site's history. A scatter of worked flints indicates slight occupation in the Neolithic/Bronze Age period. Attributed to the late pre-Roman Iron Age are a round house and part of what may be another. A hill-fort, with stonerevetted and palisaded defences, was built, possibly against the Roman invasion, but soon fell into disuse and was followed by Romano-British occupation. This included a rectangular timber building, roasting- and smeltingfurnaces and a forging-hearth of the first century; a rectangular building with two verandahs, using timber uprights set on padstones and in post-holes, and a four-post structure on the same alignment, both probably first-century; a timber building set on a stone platform and attached stone bath-building, of the second century; and undated post-hole and timber-slot systems (not fully excavated) representing fences and other timber structures. It is possible that Garden Hill was the base from which local iron-smelting sites were operated in the first and second centuries.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 8 , November 1977 , pp. 339 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © J. H. Money 1977. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 In the Parliamentary Surveys of Sussex (1658) the hill is called ‘Gardine Hill’, see Sussex Arch. Colls, xxiii (1871), 251Google Scholar; the late 18th-century Hartfield parish rate-books call it ‘Garden Hill’.

2 Margary, I. D., Sussex Notes and Queries, xvi, 330Google Scholar, and Roman Roads in Britain (London 1973). 37 and 59–62Google Scholar.

3 Tebbutt, C. F., Sussex Arch. Colls, cviii (1970), 39–49Google Scholar.

4 Money, J. H., Current Archaeology No. 41 (1973), 185–88Google Scholar; see also Britannia iv (1973), 321Google Scholar, 333; v (1974). 458; vi (1975, 282; and vii (1976), 373-4.

5 Tebbutt, C. F. and Cleere, H. F., Sussex Arch. Colls, cxi (1973). 27–40Google Scholar; Cleere, H. F., Arch. Journ. cxxxi (1974), 185 and 198Google Scholar.

7 Note by Money, J. H. in Antiq. Journ. liv (1974), 278–80Google Scholar.

8 Note by Harden, D. B. in Antiq. Journ. liv (1974), 280–81Google Scholar.

9 Mrs J. Bird kindly assisted with the identification of the samian.

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