The South Downs in Sussex are particularly interesting to me, having lived on the border of them for over ten years and having an interest in the ecology of the chalk grassland and other specialist habitats that can be found within them. The grassland habitat that is present on the downs today is only there as a result of the clearance of trees starting with early humans right through to the second world war. Because of my pre-existing interest in the area and the fact that the specialist ecosystems that are prevalent on the Downs today are a result of the changes made by humans on the landscape over time, I have chosen to research and discuss the history of the site on the Downs in Sussex known as ‘The Trundle’, best-known as an Iron Age hillfort on St Roche’s Hill located just outside of Chichester to the north.
During the Palaeolithic era, St Roche’s Hill formed a part of the coastline of the south. The sea met the base of the hill up until the north was pressured downwards by heavy ice sheets, causing the south of England to become raised leaving the hill far away from the sea, the original beaches now several miles away from the new coastline. There is evidence to show that the coastline was frequented by Palaeolithic hominins before the ice sheets forced the south upwards – almost fifty hand-axes were excavated at the base of St Roche’s Hill and were found in raised beach deposits leftover from the Palaeolithic era. (Roe & Holden1968).
The name ‘Trundle’ comes from the old English world ‘Tryndle’, meaning ‘circle’. This is most likely due to the Neolithic causeway enclosure (one of four on the South Downs) that was constructed on it, which later became a hillfort during the Iron Age, another round construction that followed the circumference of the hilltop. At least two concentric circular ditches were dug on the hilltop during the Neolithic period, the outer one a complete circle and the inner one intermittent. The causeway enclosure was discovered by O.G.S Crawford in 1925. Crawford was a pioneer in the use of aerial photography within archaeology and was even employed by the Ordnance Survey in 1920 as Archaeology Officer (Mark Bowden, 2001). He discovered the causeway on St Roche’s Hill when looking at an aerial photograph of the area. Excavation work was undertaken on one of the inner concentric ditches by Dr. E. C. Curwen in 1928, where a Neolithic settlement was discovered, similar to one at Windmill Hill in Avebury, Wiltshire. Amongst the artefacts found were pottery and ‘other relics of the Windmill Hill type’ (E. Curwen, 1928). Some of the pottery on St Roche’s Hill bears such resemblance to that found on Windmill Hill in Avebury, Wiltshire that it is thought that there was a cultural connection between the two sites throughout this period. A chalk cup that dates from the Neolithic period was found here, along with several carved chalk blocks.
Archaeological evidence suggests that causeway enclosures were frequented by Neolithic people as opposed to being inhabited areas. St Roche’s Hill excavations have shown that no Neolithic skeletal remains of humans were present, which would corroborate this theory in this case. The finding of pottery and animal bones on the site in 1928 by Curwen do too, as one theory based on the evidence gathered from sites such as this is that the burial of pottery and animal remains was ritualistic. At the time of the causeway enclosure being built, it is likely that the entirety of the surrounding area would have been woodland, so the labour associated with the clearing and constructing of the area makes it a significant place for social and spiritual meetings and events. This theory could explain the similarities in pottery between St Roche’s Hill and Windmill Hill, as analysis of animal and human bones found at other sites such as the Neolithic monument Stonehenge found that the owners of said bones travelled from all over Britain to visit the site, showing not only that there was a network of people in place, but that they would travel long distances to keystone places, perhaps for rituals or ceremonies, sometimes with livestock, whereupon they would be slaughtered (Worley, F. et al, 2019) perhaps in celebration or as sacrifice.
Analysis of snails found on the hilltop of St Roche’s tested in the 1980’s suggests that the site was abandoned and became overgrown throughout the Bronze Age (snail species that live in shaded, vegetated habitats were found on the site showing a succession in the vegetation ecosystem over time) (Bedwin & Aldsworth,1981). There is no evidence of any activity on the site between the end of the Neolithic and commencement of Iron Age period. However, the RHCME (Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England) survey undertaken as part of the ‘Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic Period’ project in1995 using aerial images proposes that a slight mound on the highest point of St Roche’s Hill previously overlooked by Curwen is in fact a round barrow, built during the Bronze Age. There is no other evidence that shows this to be so, however, and it is generally accepted by historians and archaeologists that St Roche’s Hill was not in any significant use after the Neolithic period up until the Iron Age.
The excavations undertaken by Curwen in 1928 which resulted in the discovery of the Neolithic pottery took place around an Iron Age hill fort that had been built over the original Neolithic causeway enclosure. The fort itself is what is known as ‘The Trundle’, and is one of just four that were built in Sussex during this period.
Figure 1 shows the hillfort structure on the summit of St Roche’s Hill. It clearly depicts the two entrances of the fort which would have once been guarded by large wooden gates (Hamilton, S. & Manley, J., 2001). When excavated by Curwen in 1928, it was found that much of the original Neolithic causeway enclosure had been levelled upon the occupation of the hill by Iron Age settlers. The hillfort that replaced the causeway enclosed 14 acres of land, an incredibly large structure considering it was built using purely human labour and early Iron Age tools. It has been suggested that even the process of the building of the Trundle hillfort was of socially significant importance (Garland, N., 2021). An estimation of construction time of large Iron Age structures such as the Trundle was undertaken by archaeologists, estimating how much earth a single person can excavate within an hour using tools similar to those which would have been used during the Iron Age period (Bradley., 1971) . This research showed that it would have been very unlikely that a single group of people could have undertaken the talk of building a construction the scale of the hillfort at St Roche’s Hill. Dr. Nicky Garland has suggested that the act of building the hillfort itself was of dual function: to create and maintain social bonds between different groups of settlements, and to build a site to be used for defence as well as a ritualized landscape. The building process of this construction, as well as the prominence of it, would serve as a constant reminder of the significance of this place to surrounding communities and their shared bond.
The Trundle was built over the Neolithic causeway enclosure, perhaps not only for its prominent location within the surrounding landscape, but also because of its proximity to an area of the downland that has shown evidence of being an Iron Age settlement of some significance. Iron Age human skeletons have been excavated on sites near to passageways that lead to the hilltop, along with other artefacts such as pottery and animal bones, showing the presence of settlements in numerous locations surrounding the hill. By this point in time, communities were farming. The use of the Trundle would have changed over time, beginning as an inhabited site (Hamilton and Manley, 2001). The RCHME survey of 1995 shows what appear to be fifteen house platforms within the fort area, supporting this idea. Communities were farming by the time of the construction of the Trundle, and two grain stores in the form of pits were located by the entrance of the fort (Curwen, 1928). Curwen’s discoveries associated with the hillfort in these large pits included mid-Iron Age pottery, iron knives and spearheads, and human bones (a skull and part of an arm) (E. Curwen, 1931). It has been suggested that these grain store pits fell out of use and were turned into ‘ritual pits’ as the contents of them are similar to the ones excavated on Mount Caburn in Lewes, Sussex (Hamilton & Manley, 1997). The transition of use of the hillfort, from agricultural store through to ritualistic use reinforces the idea of social bonding and cohesiveness that it has been suggested occurred throughout the Iron Age. The settlers lived on this site for approximately two centuries, until the inhabitants moved south (to the area now known as Chichester) shortly before the invasion of the Romans.
Minimal evidence from the RCHME survey and a few pieces of Roman-Anglo pottery (Curwen 1928) suggests that there may have been a small settlement on St Roche’s Hill throughout the period of Roman Britain, however there is no evidence to suggest that it was anywhere near the size of the settlement of the Iron Age period. St Roche’s Hill was not built on again until 1475, whereupon a chapel was built on the slight mound on the summit of the hill that is thought to be a round barrow by the RCHME. The chapel was built at some point in the 14th century and named after Saint Roche (who appears in literature in the 14th century, meaning that the chapel was built after this point) and it is thought that it was used by a priest to pray for the town of Chichester to save its people from the pestilence, which, according to Mr. F. J. Baigent, was just as virulent as in Sandown, Surrey, where ‘there existed not a single survivor, and of other religious houses in the diocese (which comprises only two counties) there perished no fewer than 28 superiors, abbots, abbesses, and priors’. The presence of the chapel and its proximity to Chichester would have been significant during this period of great fear, when religious beliefs were very important to the vast majority of people. The chapel was in ruins by 1570 (Allcroft, 1916), most likely due to the reformation which took place in the 16th century.
On the 18th of September, 1645, it was reported by the Sussex Committee and a Mr Rawley that 1000 men had met on the Trundle in a vigilante protest to the Parliamentarians and the Royalists forcibly enlisting, enslaving and looting innocent civilians during English Civil War (1642-1651). These men, known as the Clubmen, became a force to be taken into account by the two sides when planning attacks throughout the rest of the Civil War, as groups of them appeared throughout Britain and fought independently against both (Thomas-Stanford, C., 1910). In the mid 1700’s, the hilltop became a beacon site to warn of attack by the French (it was lit once, in 1745), and in World War Two, the summit of St Roche’s Hill was the chosen location of a radar ‘early warning’ system throughout the war. In 1801, Goodwood Racecourse was built less than a mile from St Roche’s Hill, and from this point on and even up until present day the north-east side of the Trundle is used as a vantage point on race days.
St Roche’s Hill has been selected for all of the purposes and events listed above for one common reason – it is the most prominent point within its landscape. Ever since it was first cleared in the Neolithic period it has been in almost constant use, mostly as a place of spiritual significance. It even has its own folklore; according to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phase and Fable, (1870), buried somewhere on the Trundle is treasure in the form of a golden calf that is guarded by the devil, and a ghostly calf can still be heard some nights calling on the summit of the hill. The landmark still sparks the imagination of locals even in recent history; in 1928, when Curwen was excavating the site for the first time, the folklore surrounding the monument was still being repeated by the residents of Singleton, just over a mile away. The land surrounding the hilltop has now been cleared, and our society no longer has use for the landmark as means of defence as it was used for throughout the Iron Age period or World War Two, but St Roche’s Hill still holds significance today. If you stand on the summit on a clear day you can see 45 miles west to the cliffs of Seven Sisters, the urban sprawl of Littlehampton on the coastline and the South Coast Plain running through Sussex to Hampshire. Directly to the north at Levin Down the Wildlife Trust are clearing scrub from the downland, and directly to the side of you are two gigantic radio masts. The views that we can see now are very different to those that the Neolithic people who built the causeway enclosure or the settlers who built the Trundle would have seen, but the prominence of St Roche’s Hill within the Sussex landscape and the wonder of past monuments is certainly still present today.
References
- Allcroft, A., (1916). Some Earthworks of East Sussex, Lavant Caves. Sussex Archaeol. Collect, pp.68-74
- Bedwin, O., Drewett, P., Thomas, K., & Cartwright, C. (1981). Excavations at the Neolithic Enclosure on Bury Hill, Houghton, W. Sussex 1979. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 47, 69-86.
- Cunliffe, B. and Poole, C., 1984. Danebury: an Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire-Volume 1, The Excavations, 1969-1978: the site. CBA research report, 52.
- Curwen, E. (1937). Querns. Antiquity, 11(42), 133-151
- Curwen, E., (1925) ‘The Trundle Sussex’. Tracing of the site plan and sections
- Drewett, P., Cartwright, C., James, B., Thomas, K., & O’Connor, T. (1977). The Excavation of a Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure on Offham Hill, East Sussex, 1976. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 43,
- Drewett, Peter & Hamilton, Sue & Adams, Kirsty & Oswald, Alastair & Sampson, Clifford & Rudling, David & Waller, M.P.. (1999). Marking time and making space. Sussex Archaeological Collections. 137. 7–37.
- Francis Aidan Gasquet, (2014), The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9) now commonly known as The Black Death.
- Garland, N. Boundaries and Change: The Examination of the Late Iron Age–Roman Transition, 2012 Pages: 91–104
- Garland, N., . Boundaries and Change: The Examination of the, 2012
- Hamilton, S. and Manley, J. (2001) ‘Hillforts, Monumentality and Place: A Chronological and Topographic Review of First Millennium BC Hillforts of South-East England’, European Journal of Archaeology, 4(1), pp. 7–42.
- Leeds, E. (1930). Excavations In The Trundle, Goodwood, 1928. By E. Cecil Curwen, M.B., F.S.A.; 1928
- Madgwick, R., Lamb, A.L., Sloane, H., Nederbragt, A.J., Albarella, U., Pearson, M.P. and Evans, J.A., 2019. Multi-isotope analysis reveals that feasts in the Stonehenge environs and across Wessex drew people and animals from throughout Britain. Science advances, 5(3)
- Mark Bowden (2001) Mapping the Past: O. G. S. Crawford and the Development of Landscape Studies,Landscapes, 2:2, 29-45,
- Roe & Holden, (1968)., Two Recently Discovered Lower Palaeolithic Handaxes from Northease Farm, Rodmell, and a Note on Sussex Palaeoliths p.211
- Sheridan, Alison. (2013). Early Neolithic Habitation Structures in Britain and Ireland: a Matter of Circumstance and Context.
- St. Joseph, J. K. “Air Photography and Archaeology.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 105, no. 1/2, 1945, pp. 47–59.
- Congress of Archaeological Societies in union with The Society of Antiquaries of London Report of the Thirty-sixth Congress and of the Earthworks Committee for the year 1928, London Published by the Congress of Archaeological Societies, Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd., 3 Amen Corner, London, E.C.4, 1929
- Lenthall, William, A true relation of the rising of the Club-men in Sussex.: As it was related to William Lenthall Esq; Speaker to the Honorable House of Commons, by an eye-witnesse of the same. Published by authority. 1591-1662.
- Thomas-Stanford, C., 1910. Sussex in the Great Civil War and the Interregnum, 1642-1660. Printed at the Chiswick Press.
- Charles Creighton, (2013) A History of Epidemics in Britain (Volume I of II) from A.D. 664 to the Extinction of Plague
- Whittle, Alasdair; Healy, Frances; Bayliss, Alex (2015) [2011]. “Gathering time: causewayed enclosures and the early Neolithic of southern Britain and Ireland”. In Whittle, Alasdair; Healy, Frances; Bayliss, Alex (eds.). Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 1–16
- Folklore of the Trundle: https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/the-trundle-folklore/
- Historic England: Aerial Views of St Roche’s Hill: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/volume/AF1050744
- Royal Comission on the Historical Monuments of England: Records: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme
- The Chichester Post (2017) Changing Times: History of St Roche’s Hill: https://www.chichesterpost.co.uk/2017/04/changing-times-saint-roches-hill/
- Walk Through History: The Trundle: https://onthehills.uk/2019/01/20/walks-through-history-special/
- West Sussex: The Trundle: http://www.westsussex.info/trundle-view.shtml
Libby Morris | Little Plover 