British Camp
Encyclopedia
The British Camp is an Iron Age
hill fort
located at the top of Herefordshire Beacon
in the Malvern Hills. The fort is thought to have been first constructed in the 2nd century BC. A Norman
castle
was built on the site.
The extensive earthworks
remain clearly visible today and determine the shape of the hill.
The height of the summit of British Camp is 1,110 feet.
fort is a mile south of the British Camp. There are a number of generally round hut platforms on the British Camp, which may well suggest a permanent occupation. However it is unusual to have two major hillforts within such a short distance.
The diarist John Evelyn
(1620–1706) remarked that the view from the hill was "one of the godliest vistas in England".
bank around the entire site covers three hills, although those to north and south are little more than spurs. With a perimeter of 6800 feet (2,072.6 m), the defences enclose an area of around 44 acres (17.8 ha). The first earthworks were around the base of the central hill otherwise known as the citadel. At least four pre-historic phases of building have so far been identified. Original gates appear to have existed to east, west and north-east.
ended the prehistoric use of the British Camp, but folklore states that the ancient British chieftain Caractacus made his last stand here. This is unlikely, according to the description of the Roman historian Tacitus
who implies a site closer to the river Severn
. Excavation at Midsummer Hill
fort, Bredon Hill
and Croft Ambrey
all show evidence of violent destruction around 48 AD. This may suggest that the British Camp was abandoned or destroyed around the same time.
, the future King Harold II of England. Earl Harold is recorded as building another fortress in the county at Longtown Castle
. The castle would appear to have been refortified during The Anarchy
of the reign of King Stephen
. Before 1148 the fortress was held by Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester
. The castle appears to have changed hands again in 1151 and 1153 when attacked by royalists. At this time it was defended by the men of Earl Waleran's brother, Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester
. The castle was finally destroyed by King Henry II
in 1155 and mentioned in passing by William Langland
before 1386.
, following a boundary dispute with Thomas de Cantilupe, the Bishop of Hereford
. Recent research has shown that the Shire Ditch might actually be much older. Indeed there is some evidence that it may have started life as a prehistoric trackway running from Midsummer Hill
fort to the Worcestershire Beacon
, the highest hill in the range over three miles to the north of the Camp.
.
However, the description by Tacitus
, the Roman historian makes this unlikely:
Although the River Severn
is visible from British Camp, it is about 8 kilometres (5 mi) from it, so this battle must have taken place elsewhere. A number of locations have been suggested, including sites near Brampton Bryan
, an important Roman site, or Church Stretton
which also has an Iron Age fort on Caer Caradoc Hill.
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...
located at the top of Herefordshire Beacon
Herefordshire Beacon
The Herefordshire Beacon is one of the hills of the Malvern Hills.The name Malvern of the nearby town is probably derived from the Welsh moel fryn or "bare hill"....
in the Malvern Hills. The fort is thought to have been first constructed in the 2nd century BC. A Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
was built on the site.
The extensive earthworks
Earthworks (archaeology)
In archaeology, earthwork is a general term to describe artificial changes in land level. Earthworks are often known colloquially as 'lumps and bumps'. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features or they can show features beneath the surface...
remain clearly visible today and determine the shape of the hill.
The height of the summit of British Camp is 1,110 feet.
Situation
The British Camp is composed of extensive earthworks that have been compared to a giant wedding cake. Midsummer HillMidsummer Hill
Midsummer Hill is a large hillfort on the Malvern Hills. It can be accessed via a footpath which leads south from the car park at British Camp on the A449 or a footpath which heads north from the car park in Hollybush on the A438.-External Links:*...
fort is a mile south of the British Camp. There are a number of generally round hut platforms on the British Camp, which may well suggest a permanent occupation. However it is unusual to have two major hillforts within such a short distance.
The diarist John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
(1620–1706) remarked that the view from the hill was "one of the godliest vistas in England".
British Camp
The ditch and counterscarpCounterscarp
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 around the entire site covers three hills, although those to north and south are little more than spurs. With a perimeter of 6800 feet (2,072.6 m), the defences enclose an area of around 44 acres (17.8 ha). The first earthworks were around the base of the central hill otherwise known as the citadel. At least four pre-historic phases of building have so far been identified. Original gates appear to have existed to east, west and north-east.
The Roman Era
There is no evidence about whether the coming of the RomansAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
ended the prehistoric use of the British Camp, but folklore states that the ancient British chieftain Caractacus made his last stand here. This is unlikely, according to the description of the Roman historian Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
who implies a site closer to the river Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
. Excavation at Midsummer Hill
Midsummer Hill
Midsummer Hill is a large hillfort on the Malvern Hills. It can be accessed via a footpath which leads south from the car park at British Camp on the A449 or a footpath which heads north from the car park in Hollybush on the A438.-External Links:*...
fort, Bredon Hill
Bredon Hill
Bredon Hill is a hill in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Evesham in the Vale of Evesham. The summit of the hill is in the parish of Kemerton and it extends over parts of eight other parishes...
and Croft Ambrey
Croft Ambrey
Croft Ambrey is a British Iron Age hill fort in northern Herefordshire close to the present day county border with South Shropshire.- Location :...
all show evidence of violent destruction around 48 AD. This may suggest that the British Camp was abandoned or destroyed around the same time.
The Castle
Medieval castles were sometimes built within earlier sites, reusing the earthworks of Iron Age hill forts for instance as was the case at British Camp. A ringwork and bailey castle, known as Colwall Castle as well as The Herefordshire Beacon, was built within the Iron Age hill fort, probably in the ten years immediately before 1066. Quite possibly the builder was Earl Harold GodwinsonHarold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
, the future King Harold II of England. Earl Harold is recorded as building another fortress in the county at Longtown Castle
Longtown Castle
Longtown Castle is a ruin, originally a Norman Motte and Bailey castle and later stone castle built to provide defence against the Welsh and protect the border of Herefordshire.- Location :It is located in Longtown, Herefordshire....
. The castle would appear to have been refortified during The Anarchy
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...
of the reign of King Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
. Before 1148 the fortress was held by Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester
Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester
Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, 1st Earl of Worcester , was the son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois, and the twin brother of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester...
. The castle appears to have changed hands again in 1151 and 1153 when attacked by royalists. At this time it was defended by the men of Earl Waleran's brother, Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester was Justiciar of England 1155–1168.The surname "de Beaumont" is given him by genealogists. The only known contemporary surname applied to him is "Robert son of Count Robert"...
. The castle was finally destroyed by King Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
in 1155 and mentioned in passing by William Langland
William Langland
William Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.- Life :The attribution of Piers to Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin...
before 1386.
The Shire Ditch
The Shire Ditch, or Red Earl's Dyke, runs north and south of the British Camp along the ridge of the hills. It was created in 1287 by Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of GloucesterEarl of Gloucester
The title of Earl of Gloucester was created several times in the Peerage of England. A fictional earl is also a character in William Shakespeare's play King Lear. See also Duke of Gloucester.-Earls of Gloucester, 1st Creation :...
, following a boundary dispute with Thomas de Cantilupe, the Bishop of Hereford
Bishop of Hereford
The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury.The see is in the City of Hereford where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelbert which was founded as a cathedral in 676.The Bishop's residence is...
. Recent research has shown that the Shire Ditch might actually be much older. Indeed there is some evidence that it may have started life as a prehistoric trackway running from Midsummer Hill
Midsummer Hill
Midsummer Hill is a large hillfort on the Malvern Hills. It can be accessed via a footpath which leads south from the car park at British Camp on the A449 or a footpath which heads north from the car park in Hollybush on the A438.-External Links:*...
fort to the Worcestershire Beacon
Worcestershire Beacon
Worcestershire Beacon, also popularly known as Worcester Beacon, or locally simply as The Beacon, is a hill whose summit at 425 m is the highest point of the range of Malvern Hills that runs approximately north-south along the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border, although Worcestershire Beacon...
, the highest hill in the range over three miles to the north of the Camp.
Folklore
A popular legend tells that Caractacus, a British tribal chieftain, fought his last battle against the Romans at the British Camp and goes on to say that after his capture he was taken to Rome where he was given a villa and a pension by Emperor ClaudiusClaudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
.
However, the description by Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
, the Roman historian makes this unlikely:
Although the River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
is visible from British Camp, it is about 8 kilometres (5 mi) from it, so this battle must have taken place elsewhere. A number of locations have been suggested, including sites near Brampton Bryan
Brampton Bryan
Brampton Bryan is a small village and civil parish situated in north Herefordshire, England close to the Shropshire and Welsh borders.Brampton Bryan lies mid-way between Leintwardine and Knighton on the A4113 road. The village has had a complex history and its buildings reflect this...
, an important Roman site, or Church Stretton
Church Stretton
Church Stretton is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The population of the town was recorded as 2,789 in 2001, whilst the population of the wider parish was recorded as 4,186...
which also has an Iron Age fort on Caer Caradoc Hill.
Further reading
- Children, G; Nash, G (1994) Prehistoric Sites of Herefordshire Logaston Press ISBN 1873827091