Site Event/Activity record ECH4609 - Archaeological Desk Based Assessment of the Cheshire sandstone Ridge in 2008 (Habitats and Hillforts)

The Natural and Historic Environment Team of Cheshire County Council commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment as part of the Habitats and Hillforts of Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge project. The work was required to provide an assessment of the archaeological resource represented by the six hillforts of the Sandstone Ridge and their environs (Woodhouse Hillfort, Helsby Promontory Fort, Eddisbury Hillfort, Kelsborrow Castle, Beeston Castle Hillfort and Maiden Castle), in order to facilitate informed multidisciplinary management of the resource. All are designated as Scheduled Monuments. The desk-based assessment, undertaken in October and November 2007, has revealed that varying levels of intrusive and non-intrusive work have been undertaken at each hillfort, although a large part of this work was carried out some time ago, and was not to modern standards of recording. Chronological assessments were based on now outdated artefact and rampart typographies, which do not necessarily stand up to modern scrutiny, and a number of these excavations remain unpublished. Only Maiden Castle and Beeston Castle, where excavations were undertaken in the 1980s, have associated radiocarbon dates to aid an understanding of their chronologies. However, the radiocarbon calibration curve has a ‘plateau’ which falls between 800 BC and 400 BC, and thus the chronological sequence of each of these sites is still not fully understood. All of the sites, therefore, suffer from a lack of tightly-defined chronological sequences, although Beeston Castle has produced the highest quantity of dating evidence. With the exception of Beeston Castle, all of the excavations have focused solely on the defensive circuits of the fort. As such, the nature of activity carried out at the sites, the density of occupation, the longevity of occupation, and whether the forts saw continuous or intermittent use are not known. This has obvious implications for any interpretation of the social, political, or economic roles of the forts. Examples of the higher degree of information made available from excavations in other areas that have investigated the interior and exterior areas of hillforts is given in summarised case studies of Danebury, Hampshire, and Mellor, Stockport. A wide range of recommendations for future research and fieldwork relating to the hillforts has been compiled. This includes the reassessment of surviving material within excavation archives, the production of excavation reports relating to work that has not yet been published, general strategies that should be applied to fieldwork targeting any of the hillforts, and site-specific recommendations for the investigation of individual sites.