Windbury Head camp

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1003864
Date first listed:: 10-Aug-1923

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1003864
Date first listed:: 10-Aug-1923

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Devon
District:: Torridge (District Authority)
Parish:: Hartland
National Grid Reference:: SS 28642 26633

Summary

Hillfort at Windbury Head.

Reasons for Designation

Hillforts are defined as enclosures of various shapes, situated on or close to hilltops and are defined by one or more lines of earthworks. They date to between the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (eighth - fifth centuries BC), the majority being used for 150 to 200 years prior to their abandonment or reconstruction. Smaller hillforts have generally been interpreted as stock enclosures, redistribution centres, places of refuge and permanent settlements. The earthworks generally include a rampart, narrow level berm, and external ditch and counterscarp bank. They are important for understanding the transition between Bronze Age and Iron Age communities, as well as indicating social and economic activity in the periods they represent.

Despite the effects of coastal erosion, the hillfort at Windbury Head survives comparatively well and will contain important archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, use and landscape context.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 22 October 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a hillfort on the summit of a hill called Windbury Mead, which forms part of the north Devon cliffs at Windbury Point overlooking the Bristol Channel. The monument survives as an elliptical enclosure measuring up to 90m by 35m internally, defined by a rampart which measures up to 7m wide and 2m high, with an outer 6m wide buried ditch on three sides, whilst the northern edge is formed by the steep cliff. The hillfort was historically used as the site of a coastal beacon.

A possible outer rampart 60m to the south, appears on the 1886 ordnance survey map as a lynchet, but this is not included within the scheduling because it has not been formally assessed.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: DV 73
Legacy System:: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape Monument No:- 32280

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.