Monument record 0001900000 - CHURCH HILL, WEST WYCOMBE

Dimensions - Radius 63m.
Plan Form - Circular.
Contour camp. Ditch with rampart & outer bank. Original entrance probably at NW gate of churchyard. Much of SE destroyed in C18 by Dashwood mausoleum (B4).
Univallate camp surrounds West Wycombe church & graveyard. Bank to N & NE 2.5M (B8).
Area scheduled not entirely satisfactory (B10).
Watching brief during excavation of pipe trench for church revealed possible inner ditch of hillfort (B12-13).
Background research and detailed topographic survey carried out by English Heritage between April 2000 and June 2001. Possible traces of refurbishment of defences identified. See report for detail (B14-B16).
Conservation management plan (B17).

(SU 8276 9500) Camp (GT) (B18).

A contour camp, on a spur on Church Hill. The defences, which enclose an area of 2 3/4 acres consist of a ditch (5 1/2 ft deep and 49 1/2 ft wide) with a rampart and outer bank. On the NE side the inner and outer banks are 11 1/2 ft and 6 1/2 ft high, respectively. The original entrance probably coincided with the NW gate of the churchyard. A great part of the SE side was destroyed in the 18th C when the mausoleum of the Dashwood family was built. (B19)

Iron Age 'A' sherds were found during 1963-5-6 in spoil from graves in the churchyard, mostly by Mr C Saunders. (B20 and B21)

Finds now in the County Musuem Aylesbury. (Acc Nos 6 63; 140 1 65; 180 66)
An Iron Age hill fort dated to the 2nd Century BC (B22)

Revised at 1:2500 (B23)

An IA defended settlement situated on Church Hill at the S end of a spur and encloses St Laurence's Church and graveyard. It is oval in plan measuring c 120.0m EW by 100.0m NW within a rempart of earth and flint and chalk rubble, with a ditch and outer bank. Where best-preserved in the NE the inner and outer banks are respectively 3.0m and 1.7m above the ditch, but elsewhere mutilation by grave-digging and soil creep has reduced both banks to an outward-facing scarp. The SE arc is destroyed and overlaid by the 18th C Dashwood Mausoleum. Published survey (25") Revised. (B24)

SU 827 949. Church Hill, West Wycombe. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 1.1ha (B25).

Earthworks round West Wycombe Church. Description with plan. (B26)

The defensive earthwork is much as described by source 6. It appears that the NE half of the hillfort ramparts comprised a considerable ditch with both inner and outer banks. The SW half of the fort however was probably of quite different construction in repsonse to the topographical requirements of the site, comprising two massive scarps terraced into the natural slope that may have originally been revetted. The entrance at the NW of the churchyard does not appear to original and may be medieval in date. The entrance on the east side of the fort has been remodelled but is the likliest location for an original entrance. (B14 + B15)

NRHE Insert 1998, Update 2002, 2002 (B27).