Report of excavation of a twin-barrow, and a single round barrow at Sigwell (Six Wells), parish of Compton, Somerset / by Prof. Rolleston and A. Lane Fox ; with an appendix on the topography of Sigwell.

  • Rolleston, George, 1829-1881.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of excavation of a twin-barrow, and a single round barrow at Sigwell (Six Wells), parish of Compton, Somerset / by Prof. Rolleston and A. Lane Fox ; with an appendix on the topography of Sigwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    camp—I say unusual because a considerable portion of the neighbour- ing ploughed lane was searched by the whole party without finding such an accumulation of flakes in any other spot; so abundant were they that we should have no hesitation in pronouncing such an accu- mulation of chips to mark the site of a small flint implement factory wherever it might be found. This evidence of the antiquity of the camp must be taken for what it is worth. In my judgment, and what is of greater value, in the judgment of Professor Polleston and those other gentlemen by whom we were accompanied, it is sufficient to make it extremely probable that the camp is at least as early as the Bronze Age, assuming it to be a work of defence, which I see no reason to doubt. (See the plan, PI. 2 and the sections D, B, E, A, B, C, PI. 3). Another hypothesis may be mentioned, viz., that the ditch instead of being a work of defence is simply the continuation of the ancient roadway which, instead of passing down the ravine ran across the top of the hill, and thus the small trench above mentioned is the way down the eastern ravine; this view, however, is rejected by Professor Rolleston and myself. We have now to consider the value of this conclusion and its bearing upon the topography of the surrounding neighbourhood. It is seen that this camp at Sigwell commands the six springs be- neath it. Charnwell also, on the nearest projecting hillock to the north, had been already recognised as a British camp by the Rev. Mr. Bennett, rector of South Cadbury, to whose knowledge of the antiquities of this district we were indebted on so many occasions. The entrenchment at Charawell, with its ditch on the outside cut- ting across the gorge of the hill, is distinctly seen on the east side, the remaining sides being defended by natural declivities which as usual in British camps are rarely strengthened by embankments, the only exception being in this case at the west end, wffiere the slope is more gentle and where a small rampart, now used as a division to a field, has been thrown up so as to enclose the spring before mentioned, which rises on this hill and joins the Sigwell rivulet beneath Cadbury. Both these small camps, therefore, covered springs. Whether there is a camp on Gurt Hill to the south I am unable to say with cer- tainty; my impression is that there was. There has certainly been a low bank with a ditch on the outside across the gorge or narrowest part of the hill, but the greater part of it has been destroyed by a quarry, and there is no spring on this hill that I am aware of. There are also traces of a small bank on Littleton Hill to the north but not of sufficient extent to afford trustworthy evidence of a defensive work. Whether there were two or more of these banks, it appears un- likely that such small and feebly-defended camps could have held their own as the strongholds of independent tribes in the vicinity of so large and powerful a fortress as Cadbury, defended by three ramparts and almost precipitous declivities on all sides ; and we might therefore assume on a priori grounds that they were outposts