Landscape Detective

The border with Wales has always needed defending whether by the Marcher Lords, Normans, or from the earliest times by the Celts in the form of their hillforts. Hillforts are Iron Age defended settlements. They were administrative centres, trading centres, and a place of refuge in times of war.

The hillfort on top of the Wrekin, shown here, was the capital of a Celtic tribe known as the Cornovii. This tribe ruled an area stretching from the Welsh borderlands to Chester. The Cornovii were only overthrown when the Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD. There are over 50 hillforts in the county, most to the South and along the Welsh border. Some have impressive fortifications with multiple banks and ditches while others have just a single bank.

They also vary in size. The top of Titterstone Clee Hill covers 71 acres. The image shows rough blocks of dhustone, a volcanic basalt which forms Titterstone Clee. These formed the secondary defences for the hillfort. The original enclosure would have been an earth and timber wall, and at 533 metres above sea level would not only have been an impressive but well defended site.

To build a hillfort without mechanisation would have required skill and organisation. Everyone in the community would have been involved, from women and children to slaves. They were constructed with simple tools, and the earth, turf and stone from the construction of the ditches would have had to be carried away in buckets and baskets. The heavy timber, used for the palisade, would have been erected manually, perhaps with the aid of ox drawn carts.