Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Iron Age cliff castle and site of St George's churchyard on East Hill

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1011086
Date first listed:: 11-Dec-1951

User submitted image — Uploaded by Information Analysis This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1011086
Date first listed:: 11-Dec-1951
Date of most recent amendment:: 10-Feb-1994

Location

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

County:: East Sussex
District:: Hastings (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 83297 09930

Reasons for Designation

Cliff castles are coastal promontories adapted as enclosures by the construction of one or more ramparts placed across the neck of a spur. Promontories chosen generally end in steep cliffs on the seaward side though examples are known to occur inland, overlooking river valleys or estuaries, or situated on low coastal cliffs. They are mostly of Iron Age date and were generally abandoned by the middle of the 1st century AD. Of the fifty examples recorded to date in England, nearly all occur in Devon and Cornwall, though isolated examples do occur elsewhere, for example in the south-east. The majority of sites are located on the north Cornish coast and around the Lizard Penisula. Cliff castles are thought to have served similar purposes to defended hilltop enclosures in inland locations. Some show evidence for permanent occupation but others may have served as temporary refuges or to protect stock and agricultural produce. In view of the relative rarity of this class of monument and its importance in understanding the distribution of Iron Age communities prior to and during the early years of the Roman occupation, all surviving examples are thought to be worthy of protection. The example on East Hill is one of only very few outside south-west England, in an area where other types of hillfort predominate. Its bank survives well and the presence of the hornwork is unusual. The presence of St George's churchyard is evidence for the continued use of the hill following the end of the Iron Age.

Details

The monument includes the earthworks and internal area of an Iron Age cliff castle, defended by steep cliffs on three sides, and within which is St George's churchyard, first referred to in 1291. The cliff castle measures overall some 450m NE-SW by 200m NW-SE. To the south-west, an artificially steepened line marks the limits of the site. The principal earthwork defences were on the north-east side, where a natural ridge was enhanced to form a bank up to 30m in width and some 4m high which cut off the promontory from the ground to the east. This bank may have been accompanied by a ditch on its east side though there is currently no evidence for this surviving. The bank is breached near its centre by an original entrance aligned obliquely. It has been breached in other places since the site's abandonment, most noticeably some 30m from the cliff edge to allow for a coastal footpath. Extending south-eastwards from the original entrance is an outer earthen bank and ditch, or hornwork, which formed an additional defence. This earthwork, up to 40m in width, has been spread to a greater extent than the principal bank, but its ditch is still visible on its north-east side. The outline of St George's churchyard is marked by an approximately rectangular raised area 85m by 50m around which is a bank which reaches 2m in height. It is now believed that there is no evidence for a church ever having been present on the site. The visible internal divisions relate to the use of the area for allotment gardens. All road surfaces, modern structures and service trenches are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 12870
Legacy System:: RSM

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.