Summary
Iron Age settlement, 347m NNW of Horsenden Farm.
Reasons for Designation
The size and form of Iron Age enclosed settlements vary considerably from single farmsteads up to large semi-urban oppida. Farmsteads are generally represented by curvilinear enclosures containing evidence of a small group of circular domestic buildings and associated agricultural structures. The enclosures surrounding Iron Age settlements would have provided protection against cattle rustling and tribal raiding. Small multivallate hillforts are defined as fortified enclosures of varying shape, generally between 1 and 5ha in size and located on hilltops. They are defined by boundaries consisting of two or more lines of closely set earthworks spaced at intervals of up to 15m. Earthworks may consist of a rampart alone or of a rampart and ditch which, on many sites, are associated with counterscarp banks and internal quarry scoops. The interior generally consists of settlement evidence including round houses, four and six post structures interpreted as raised granaries, roads, pits, gullies, hearths and a variety of scattered post and stake holes.
The Iron Age settlement, 347m NNW of Horsenden Farm survives relatively well and has been shown by partial excavation to contain archaeological information relating to the former use and history of the site. Only part of the site has been excavated and there is thus potential for further archaeological investigation, particularly relating to the construction and occupation of the settlement, as well as the landscape in which it was built.
History
See Details.
Details
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 19 March 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.
The monument includes an Iron Age settlement surviving as archaeological remains. It is situated at the summit of Horsenden Hill and overlooks the Grand Union Canal and Perivale to the south.
The settlement covers a semi-circular area of more than 150m in diameter. There are possible traces of defensive ditches and banks on the west and south sides of the hill, which appear as slight undulations in the ground surface. The earthworks relating to the settlement are likely to survive as buried remains, having become part-levelled and infilled in the past.
Partial excavation in 1973-77, 1987-88 and 1995 recovered a considerable amount of Iron Age pottery and an enamelled lynchpin, indicative of a settlement. Other finds included Neolithic worked flint, such as a transverse arrowhead and a retouched blade fragment, Bronze Age, Roman and medieval pottery sherds.
