Itford Hill style settlement on Cock Hill

Reasons for Designation

Itford Hill style settlements are small domestic settlements of one to three households, usually covering an area of between 1ha and 3ha, comprising a series of small banked compounds set back to back. The compounds are frequently associated with tracks and hollow ways which link the settlements to field systems, and round barrow cemeteries are often nearby. The settlements date to the Late Bronze Age (tenth to eighth centuries BC). Excavated examples have shown that the compounds usually contain circular wooden buildings varying in diameter from 3m to 8m, with entrance porches. Associated with these structures would have been a series of working areas and fenced compounds; small ponds have also been found. Finds, including loomweights and carbonised grain, provide evidence for the practice of a mixed farming economy. Itford Hill style settlements are found in southern England, principally in the chalk downland of Sussex where Itford Hill itself is located. They are a rare monument type, with less than 20 examples known nationally.

The Itford Hill style settlement on Cock Hill survives well and has been shown by part excavation to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the construction and use of the monument. The settlement lies c.740m to the north east of a similar settlement on New Barn Down, and Harrow Hill flint mine and Martin Down style enclosure, and a dispersed round barrow cemetery are situated nearby. These monuments are broadly contemporary, and their close association will provide evidence for the relationship between settlement, exchange and burial practices during the prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes an Itford Hill style settlement situated on a chalk hill which forms part of the Sussex Downs. This takes the form of a small, north west-south east aligned oval enclosure bounded by a ditch up to c.6m wide and c.0.75m deep and a bank c.4m wide and up to c.0.5m high, the eastern side of which has been partly levelled by modern ploughing. Access to the interior was by way of a causewayed gap through the south eastern ramparts. Part excavation of the enclosure between 1952-57 showed that it was constructed in, and underwent at least one phase of redevelopment during, the Late Bronze Age (tenth to eighth centuries BC). Traces of three timber round houses each c.20m in diameter were discovered within the interior, and clay loom-weights found in one suggested that it was used as a weaving shed. Other features revealed by the excavation were a series of pits, several wooden structures interpreted as lean-to buildings, and a pond which survives as a roughly circular depression within the south eastern sector of the enclosure. Three contemporary multiple cremation burials were found to have been deposited in the ground beneath two of the houses and close to the enclosure entrance. The excavation also discovered evidence for an earlier, unenclosed settlement dating to the Middle Bronze Age beneath the Late Bronze Age enclosure. The settlement was associated with a nearby field system which has been levelled by modern ploughing and is therefore not included in the scheduling. The modern fences which cross the monument 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. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

29272

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Ratcliffe-Densham, H B A, M M, , Sussex Archaeological Collections in An Anomalous Earthwork of the Late Bronze Age on Cock Hill, Vol. 99, (1961), 78-101

End of official list entry

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