Scratchbury Camp is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort on Scratchbury Hill, overlooking the Wylye valley about 1 km northeast of the village of Norton Bavant in Wiltshire, England. The fort covers an area of and occupies the summit of the hill on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with its four-sided shape largely following the natural contours of the hill.
The Iron Age hillfort dates to around 100 BC, but contains the remains of an earlier and smaller D-shaped enclosure or camp. The age of this earlier earthwork is currently subject to debate, and has been variously interpreted due to the inconclusive and incomplete nature of previous and differing excavation records; it may be early Iron Age dating to around 250 BC, but it has also been interpreted as being Bronze Age, dating to around 2000 BC.
There are seven tumuli located within the enclosure of the fort, which were excavated in the 19th century by Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington. Finds from excavations at that time included relics of bone, pottery, flint, brass, and amber jewellery, most of which can be seen today at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes. Other items of interest have been found in and around the site including Roman artefacts and neolithic flint and jade axe heads.
The site is listed on Wiltshire Council's Sites and Monuments Record with number ST94SW200, and is also a scheduled monument number SM10213. The hillfort falls within a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated as Scratchbury & Cotley Hills SSSI, which encompasses a total of , being first SSSI notified in 1951.
Etymology The name of the hill could be derived from a number of old English words and meanings, the etymology of which are ambiguous and open to interpretation, given the differing sources. One possibility is that the name is derived from the words scratch, an old West Country word for the Devil; and bury, from the Old English word beorg, meaning a mound or hill, or sometimes a defense; although it could also be derived from CrechSamuel Lewis, pp 501-505 or Crechen meaning a hill, and burh, meaning a fortified town or a defended site.
Description
Iron Age hillfort
The steeply contoured sides of Scratchbury Hill form natural defences to the north, west and southwestern sides, and in part to a small area of the eastern flank. Elsewhere on the hill the contours are less steep and afford easier access, with the southeastern boundary merging into the adjacent Cotley Hill with only a small change in level. The Iron Age fortifications at Scratchbury Camp consist of a single large ditch and rampart to the most steeply contoured flanks, with some secondary counterscarps to the more accessible sides.Sir Richard Colt Hoare, pp 69-71 The fort, as measured from the ramparts, has a circumference of
The inner earthworks are typical of a "quarry-ditch" formation, whereby the material excavated from the inner ditch is used to create the rampart.J.Forde-Johnston, p. 129 Within the quarry ditch numerous curvilinear and circular depressions may represent remains of structures. The fortifications are best preserved on the western side of the hill where the ditch is between wide and up to deep. The banks and ditches are generally uneven in height and depth, which is thought to be evidence for a 'gang dug' construction of the earthworks. Elsewhere, the enclosure is defined by a bank in height above the ditch bottom, the ditch being wide and up to deep. On parts of the eastern side of the fort the ditch is absent and is replaced by a ledge of between wide. There are two original entrances to the fort on the eastern side, and a possible third on the northwest side. The southeastern entrance has earthwork marks representing possible outer fortifications, and is approached from the adjacent Cotley Hill by a narrow ridge of land referred to as Burberry
Much of the north and west areas of the interior appear to have been densely settled, as demonstrated by the traces of approximately 100 probable structures. These survive mainly as shallow circular hollows of between in diameter and up to deep. The best preserved is a rectangular platform immediately within the southern terminal of the western entrance. The location and unusual morphology suggests a special function for this structure, and it is perhaps plausible that a 'guard chamber' or sentry was positioned here.
Earlier enclosure Within the centre of the hillfort lies the remains of an earlier and smaller D-shaped inner earthwork enclosure of circa , and excavated by E.C.Curwen in 1930.E.C.Curwen, pg 38 Today, all that really remains of this enclosure is one well defined lynchet of approximately high along the southern section. This feature bears a resemblance to a similar such enclosure at Yarnbury Castle, and was originally interpreted by Curwen to be a Neolithic causewayed enclosure due to its interrupted nature, and the discovery at the site of jade and flint axes.
Subsequent excavations by Grimes in 1957F.K.Annable, pg 17 re-interpreted this feature to be an earlier Iron Age enclosure dating to approximately 250 BC, with Iron Age pottery found within the primary fill. It was therefore speculated that the visible interruptions have been made by post Medieval ploughing. Faint traces of a remnant bank survive along the north and west sections, and an adjoining ditch has a causewayed nature, and survives in short segments varying between in length. There is also evidence of a single original west facing entrance currently discernible as a wide gap in the enclosure boundary. The straight southeastern side of the enclosure is formed by a ditch that is truncated by the main hillfort boundary, and this again has been interpreted as further evidence that the linear ditch and contiguous enclosure pre-date the main hillfort.
However, more recent aerial and photographic surveys have meant that W.F.Grimes' re-interpretation may have been in error. A detailed survey undertaken between 1994 and 1995 by the field survey teams of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England have suggested that the feature is in fact more likely to be a Neolithic causewayed enclosure as originally interpreted by E.C.Curwen. One possible explanation for the apparent confusion in dating this feature is that Grimes may not have excavated fully to the primary fill. The surveys suggest that the feature clearly has causeways, and low winter sun photography shows that the enclosure continues beyond what was previously believed to be its eastern edge, to form a sub-circular rather than D-shaped enclosure feature."Salisbury Plain Training Area: A report for the National Mapping Programme", Simon Crutchley, published by English Heritage, 2000 The 'crop mark' visible on aerial photographs shows a continuation of the curve to the southeast of the straight side, thus roughly completing a circle. This feature has also been interpreted as a possible base for a palisaded enclosure. There is also a probable link between the likely neolithic causewayed enclosure and the surrounding barrow cemetery, which would have followed later.
Later features There is also a Romano-British or later ditch, running east to west, which turns south sharply at the southwest corner of the hillfort, and which partly overlies the earlier Iron Age earthworks. The main ramparts appear to have been built in the 1st century BC.
Construction phases
The archaeological evidence suggests that Scratchbury Camp was built in at least two but perhaps three phases. It is generally well accepted that the first phase of construction is defined by the curvilinear portion of the interior D-shaped enclosure, but whether there were distinct second and third Iron Age phases, or merely a re-alignment in the second phase, it is unclear. The scarp subdividing the early fort is a possible indication of a second phase, but this may have been the setting out for a bank that was never utilised. In its third and final phase it seems possible that the fort, having been 'laid out' to include the large barrow, was then further extended to encompass the whole of the top of the hill, to make full defensive use of the natural slopes and resulting in the present day configuration.
Archaeology Excavations at the site have revealed many items from Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Romano-British periods. Most of the finds are now preserved at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes. Most recently, Professor William Francis Grimes partially excavated the inner earthworks on the site in the 1950s. Finds included Iron Age pottery. In 1880 two Bronze Age axes were apparently found on or near Scratchbury Camp. Both are in private collection; one is a socketed type axe and the other resembles a late North European (Montelius 6) type.
Sir Richard Colt Hoare also records the discoveries of a neolithic jade axe and a ground flint axe, along with various 'British and Roman' pottery inside the camp, as excavated by William Cunnington in 1802. The jade axe is described by the archaeologist Kenneth Oakley as resembling Australian Aboriginal implements. The flint axe is of polished white flint, with the end re-chipped, and was found at the entrance to Scratchbury Camp. It measures long, by wide, and high.
The hillfort also contains seven bowl barrow tumuli within its boundaries, and a possible eighth just outside it, referenced as the Scratchbury Grave group, or the Scratchbury Hill Group, and which were excavated between 1802 and 1804 by Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington. However, as the three-age system had not been introduced at that time, they were unable to date their finds and therefore were at a disadvantage when trying to interpret them. The tumuli were re-recorded in the 1957 surveys by W.F. Grimes. Descriptions from the reports and writings of Sir Richard Colt-Hoare and William Cunnington are given in the table below.