Monument record 0078300000 - NORBURY CAMP

Summary

Possible Iron Age enclosure or hillfort known from historical records, field survey and aerial photography - A slight univallate hillfort located on the south western outskirts of the village of Padbury. The hillfort stands on a slight plateau bounded on the north western side by a meander of the Padbury Brook. The hillfort's perimeter can be traced across the pasture to the south, where it forms an oval circuit measuring some 200 metres from north to south and 250 metres from east to west. The boundary earthworks are thought to have been designed to enhance the natural topography and to have included an inner bank surrounded by an external ditch, except on the north western side where a single outward scarp faces the brook. The ditch has largely been infilled, although one section, measuring some 8 metres to 12 metres in width and 0.8 metres deep, remains visible around the northern part of the boundary. The bank can still be traced on the eastern side of the perimeter, where it measures about 10 metres in width and 0.4 metres high. The bank is known to have stood up to 1 metre in height around the south western side, although it was pushed into the ditch in the 1940s when the interior was briefly cultivated. The boundary on this side is now marked by a pronounced scarp which descends some 1.8 metres towards the line of the infilled ditch. The south eastern quarter of the ramparts, together with a small area of the interior, was completely destroyed by a 19th century clay quarry and brickworks (now abandoned). There is no visible evidence of habitation within the interior of the hillfort, which is generally level apart from a slight slope towards the brook. The name 'Norbury' was first recorded on a map of the All Soul's College Estates dated 1591, and is believed to derive from the old English terms 'noro', meaning north, and 'burgh', meaning a stronghold or fortified place. Evidently, the site remained notable for its defences long after its abandonment. Scheduled.

Protected Status/Designation

  • Archaeological Notification Area: Iron Age hillfort at Norbury (DBC8849)
  • Scheduled Monument 1017514: NORBURY: A SLIGHT UNIVALLATE HILLFORT IMMEDIATELY EAST OF PADBURY MILL (DBC7196)

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Type and Period (3)

  • DITCHED ENCLOSURE (Early Iron Age to Late Iron Age - 700 BC? to 42 AD?)
  • HILLFORT (Early Iron Age to Late Iron Age - 700 BC? to 42 AD?)
  • SCARP (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD?)

Description

Plan Form - SUBCIRCULAR
A "camp" found at the south end of Padbury on low ground close to the bridge. It is marked "Norbury" on the Elizabethan Estate Map of All Souls' College, and is of irregular shape probably never having more than a single mound and ditch, now much ploughed out but easily traceable (B1).
ENCLOSURE, NOT A FORT (B2).
A ROUGHLY CIRCULAR, UNDATED EARTHWORK; ENCLOSES ABOUT 15 ACRES AND HAS A SINGLE RAMPART & DITCH (B3).
SOUTHERN 3RD OF DITCH STILL CLEAR. SCARP ONLY ON W. N SIDE DEFINED BY TRACKWAY TO OLD FORD. INTERIOR BANK BULLDOZED C.1940 (B4).
SCHEDULED (B5).

A univallate hillfort of possible Iron Age date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located on the east side of Padbury Mill, to the south of Padbury Brook, Padbury, and centred at SP 71122 30056. Earthworks of banks and ditches forming a subcircular enclosure, approximately 260x230m, are visible on aerial photographs and lidar visualisations. The south east quarter of the earthworks have been removed by a clay pit and brickworks (see MBC14914) and slight ridge and furrow earthworks are visible in the centre, to the north and south of the road to Padbury Mill, which crosses the whole. A 1591 map of Padbury records this enclosure as Norberye, with a sketch of a cross section, and ridge and furrow field systems surround this enclosure. (6-12)



(SP 711300) Norbury (NR) (B13).
Indications of a slight bank (B14 and B15).
An enclosure rather than a fort (B16).
Norbury: name verified (b5) The spread and mutilated remains of a univallate earthwork formerly sub-circular in shape and enclosing a pastured area of c 4.0 hectares. Although its position is not prominent its location on the edge of a flood plain possibly gave it a natural western defence. Except for sections on th E & SW sides the bank survives as a low amorphous spread, and only one section of ditch on the N side survives, and this is confused by an old watercourse. According to local information the bank at one time was over 1.0 m high in most places but was reduced by war-time levelling. The clay pit, which has destroyed the SE area, ceased working in c1914 (b5). The proportions of this work are consistent with a defended enclosure/settlement of IA date. A similar work c 4.5 kms to the N (also on a flood plain edge) is thought to be IA. See SP 73 SW 8. A map of Padbury dated c 1590 shows and names Norbury as an oval enclosure devoid of internal detail. Surveyed at 1:2500 (B17).

Sources (18)

  • <1>SBC9847 Bibliographic reference: MYRES J N L 1930 NOTE IN CONGRESSOFARCHAEOLOGICALSOCIETIES,REPORTOF37THCONGRESS1929P11"".
  • <2>SBC10719 Bibliographic reference: OS RECORD CARD SP 73 SW 5 (FILED).
  • <3>SBC11706 Bibliographic reference: Nikolaus Pevsner. 1960. The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire. p222.
  • <4>SBC4884 Bibliographic reference: FARLEY M E (BCM) OCT 1984 FIELD VISIT (& INFORMATION FROM MR A CURTIS).
  • <5>SBC14019 Scheduling record: English Heritage. 1998. SCHEDULING LISTS OF INSPECTORATE OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS FEBRUARY 1998.
  • <6>SBC26496 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 2023. RAF-106G-UK-1380 RP 3017 09-Apr-1946.
  • <7>SBC25062 Digital archive: Environment Agency. Environment Agency LiDAR data. LIDAR SP72NW Environment Agency National LIDAR Programme DTM 1 Metre dated 2019 SP7129.
  • <8>SBC26535 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 1946. RAF/3G/TUD/UK/86 RV 6142 26-Mar-1946.
  • <9>SBC26575 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 1973. OS-73284 V 264 14-Jun-1973.
  • <10>SBC26538 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 2007. NMR 24805_001 06-Nov-2007.
  • <11>SBC25062 Digital archive: Environment Agency. Environment Agency LiDAR data. LIDAR SP7130 Environment Agency 1m DTM Composite 2017-2019 date accessed 25-Feb-2020.
  • <12>SBC26388 Digital archive: Digital Bodleian. 1586-1605. All Souls College Hovenden I. date accessed 16-Oct-2023 Image I02.
  • <13>SBC28494 Map: Ordnance Survey. 1958. OS 6" 1958.
  • <14>SBC29015 Aerial Photograph: J K St Joseph. JK St Joseph HH 23.
  • <15>SBC29016 Aerial Photograph: Royal Air Force. 1959. RAF 543/673/F41 0029-30 24-08-1959.
  • <16>SBC29017 Verbal communication: C Gowing. 1964. Letter: C N Gowing Curator County Museum 27-08-1964.
  • <17>SBC29018 Verbal communication: J R Linge. 1974. Field Investigator Comments - F1 JRL 09-MAY-74.
  • <18>SBC27441 Digital archive: Historic England. National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE). Insert 1998.

Location

Grid reference Centred SP 7113 3005 (273m by 246m)
Civil Parish PADBURY, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (3)

  • Event - Survey: (EBC14027)
  • Event - Survey: Aerial investigation and mapping project (Ref: 7768) (EBC18304)
  • Event - Survey: Field visit (EBC15913)

Record last edited

Feb 3 2026 9:18AM

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