Worlebury Camp (also known as Worlebury Hillfort) is the site of an Iron Age hillfort on Worlebury Hill, north of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England. The fort was well defended with numerous walls, embankments and ditches around the site. Several large triangular platforms have been uncovered around the sides of the fort, lower down on the hillside. Nearly one hundred storage pits of various sizes were cut into the bedrock, and many of these contained human remains, coins, and other artefacts. During the 19th and 20th centuries the fort suffered damage and was threatened with complete destruction on multiple occasions. Now, the site is a designated Scheduled monument. It falls within the Weston Woods Local Nature Reserve which was declared to Natural England by the North Somerset Council in 2005.
History
In The Ancient Entrenchments and Camps of Gloucestershire, Edward J. Burrow mentions that probably either the Goidel or Brython people had initially built the Worlebury Camp. The Belgae people subsequently overthrew the initial inhabitants and occupied the camp for a while, but they were subsequently eliminated at the hands of the Romans.
Worlebury Camp has been explored at various times over a period of 150 years. From 1851 to 1852, Charles Dymond, Edwin Martin Atkins, and Francis Warre excavated and surveyed the Worlebury Camp. Dymond returned in 1880 to continue the excavation, which lasted until 1881. Another century passed before the Woodspring Museum from Weston-super-Mare excavated more of Worlebury camp in 1987 to 1988. Finally, in 1998, the Avon Extensive Urban Study team performed the latest (as of 2008) assessment of the site.
A condition survey undertaken in 2017-18 resulted in a request for an analytical earthwork survey which was undertaken by Historic England in 2018–19. While the survey disclosed some evidence about the use of the hillfort and its later history, many questions still remain.
Location
The fort is located on the summit of Worlebury Hill, above sea level. It is in the present-day North Somerset, above the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare and close to the village of Worle.
Its inhabitants would have had a view of the countryside as well as any potential invaders. They would have been able to see out over to Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Black Mountains, the Mendip Hills, Dunkery Beacon, Sand Point, and Wales. This view is no longer as unobstructed as it once was because of the presence of so many trees spread over the hill.
Archaeological findings
Platforms
There are a number of triangular platforms on the slopes around the fort. The apexes of these triangles are flush with the hillside, with the base projecting in the downhill direction. However, the upper surface is approximately level. The front faces of these platforms are about above the hillside, and they have ditches in front of them to improve their defence. In a letter to Warre, Atkins theorised that the structures were slingers' platforms or archers' stations. Several sling stones have been found around them, offering some credence to the theory that slingers stood upon these platforms. Dymond mentions the stones in his book:
Walls and ditches
Worlebury Hill is bordered on its northern and western sides by steep cliffs dropping down into the Bristol Channel between Weston Bay and Sand Bay. These would have rendered the fort nearly immune to attack from those directions. Nevertheless, the fort still has one wall on its northern side and one on its western side, both very near the edge of the cliffs. On the south side, a single rampart and a ditch guarded the fort. The level east side was protected by two stone ramparts and five ditches. Parts of these ramparts were over high measuring from the bottom of the ditch as of 1875.
The walls of the fort are around thick. However, because they are made up of dry-laid stone, the removal of a few stones would be sufficient to bring the entire wall collapsing down. To prevent access to the walls themselves, the inhabitants of the fort raised large breastworks around the base of the walls by piling up rock rubble against the bases. These rubble barriers are over high, and in places they are over thick. Attackers would have had to clear away the rubble before being able to attack the wall, and all the while they would be under direct fire from defenders on the top of the wall.