Ambresbury Banks is the name given to the remains of an Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

 in Epping Forest

Epping Forest

Epping Forest is an area of ancient woodland in south-east England, straddling the border between north-east Greater London and Essex. It is a former royal forest, and is managed by the City of London Corporation....

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

According to legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

, it is the site of the last stand by Boudica

Boudica

Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....

 against the Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 in the year 61. There is no evidence to support this; other theories for the location of the battlefield include Mancetter

Mancetter

Mancetter is a village and civil parish on the outskirts of Atherstone in North Warwickshire, at the crossing of Watling Street over the River Anker.-History:...

 in Warwickshire and Kings Cross

Kings Cross, London

King's Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district located 2.5 miles north of Charing Cross. The area formerly had a reputation for being a red light district and run-down. However, rapid regeneration...

 in London. Nevertheless, Ambresbury Banks forms, along with Loughton Camp

Loughton Camp

Loughton Camp is an Iron Age Hill fort in Epping Forest, one mile North West of the town of Loughton.The camp's earthworks cover an area of approximately 10 acres and are visible today as a low bank and ditch encircling the main camp...

, Wallbury Camp, Little Hadham, Barkway and Littlebury, a line of hill-forts that arguably delineate the disputed territories of the warring Trinovantes

Trinovantes

The Trinovantes or Trinobantes were one of the tribes of pre-Roman Britain. Their territory was on the north side of the Thames estuary in current Essex and Suffolk, and included lands now located in Greater London. They were bordered to the north by the Iceni, and to the west by the Catuvellauni...

 and Catuvellauni

Catuvellauni

The Catuvellauni were a tribe or state of south-eastern Britain before the Roman conquest.The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their kings before the conquest can be traced through numismatic evidence and scattered references in classical histories. They are mentioned by Dio Cassius, who implies...

.

The fort encircles an area of 4.5 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s (11 acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s) and is surrounded by a single bank of 2 m (6 ft) in height, together with a ditch. There is a small counterscarp

Counterscarp

A scarp and a counterscarp are the inner and outer sides of a ditch used in fortifications. In permanent fortifications the scarp and counterscarp may be encased in stone...

 bank on the outside lip of the ditch. The defences now have 6 major breaks in their circumference; only one appears to be original. This is approached from the north west by a trapezoid

Trapezoid

In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...

al causeway. The ends of the bank at this point were revetted with coursed puddingstone

Puddingstone

Puddingstone may refer to:*Puddingstone , a type of sedimentary rock*Puddingstone Park, a park in Boston, Massachusetts*Lake Puddingstone, a lake in Los Angeles County, California*Puddingstone Rock, a small islet in New Zealand's Otago Harbour...

 blocks. The width of the passageway was sufficient to suggest double gates, but no central posthole

Posthole

In archaeology a posthole is a cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone. They are usually much deeper than they are wide although truncation may not make this apparent....

s were found. Finds at the site have included shards of red, grey and black pottery, flints and flint arrow heads, and lumps of baked clay. These suggest a construction date of around 700 BC and occupation until 42 AD.

The area within and around the fort is now completely wooded

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

, although in Iron Age times it would have been cleared of trees to enable a better field of view, and for agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. This has been suggested by evidence of Wild Service trees, which are an indicator of regrown forest.

The Ambresbury Banks site has been examined archaeologically 9 times; the first excavation was by Augustus Pitt-Rivers in 1881.