Monument record 0124500000 - IVINGHOE BEACON HILLFORT

Plan Form - subtriangular
Scheduled ancient monument. Contour fort, close to Icknield Way (B11). For most part is univallate, single entrance at the eastern end. Created early in the 6th century BC by pastoralists still using Bronze Age implements, but otherwise with an Iron Age culture. The settlement was soon abandoned. The rampart rapidly weathered and the ditch became nearly obliterated (B6).
A geophysical survey carried out as a student project in 2000 suggests that the site has multi-phase use ranging from Neolithic to possibly Iron Age rather than the 'one generation' occupation suggested by Cotton and Frere. The survey is believed to show evidence of a pallisade rebuilt over time, a D-shaped enclosure close to the trig point and the neolithic cursus or moturaty enclosure running NE/SW across the site. Occupational activity appears to be confined to the interior of the fort in the west and northwest. (B16).
English Heritage's Earthwork Survey Report of November 2000, suggests that the Bronze Age/Iron Age society of the Chilterns eventually formed into a single kingdom farming the slopes of the hills and avoiding the heavily forested valley bottoms. During the later Bronze Age, the focus of settlement began to move down into the valleys and this is when the hillfort is likely to have been abandoned. The instigation of the box rampart is indicative of the site developing to form of a chain of hill forts in the late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age with Ravensburgh Castle, Maiden Bower and Wilbury Hill. The ramparts are still 2m high in places and excavation suggests that the main ditch was once 3.1m wide by 2.2m deep on the north side, with a second outer ditch present to the south. Survey evidence suggests a further two barrows inside the fort to the east of the barrow already noted. Four post structures might be interpreted as an excarnation platform showing the continuing funerary importance. The evidence for settlement inside the fort is strong with finds of late Bronze Age fine and coarseware, loom weights, quern fragments, plus cattle, sheep and pig bones. The fort probably became common ground after abandonment. The earthworks are not shown on estate or tithe maps. Nor are they shown on the first OS map of 1884, although the barrow is noted. The fort was first mapped in 1925. According to the Buckinghamshire Victorian County History of 1905 (page 379) a fire beacon once stood within the fort, with the kettle and other implements kept in the church. A Bren gun is also believed to have been sited on the beacon during World War II (B17).