The Bulwarks, Minchinhampton

The Bulwarks is a long bank and ditch that curves across Minchinhampton Common on the north and north-west side of Minchinhampton. It is Late Iron Age, dug and piled up in the last centuries before the Romans, and it is free to walk beside at any time.

History

Nobody knows for certain what the Bulwarks was for. It is a linear earthwork, a long bank rather than the closed ring of a hill fort, and there is a second Iron Age bank near Amberley. The Victoria County History calls it an ancient earthwork and notes that the woodland beyond it, in the west of the parish, was the custom wood where the tenants took timber for fuel and repairs.

The 1937 excavation

The bank was partly excavated in 1937 by Mrs Clifford. She found that its face towards the ditch had been built up with a stone wall, a revetment. Pottery from beneath the bank and from the bottom of the ditch dated it to the Late Iron Age. The Amberley bank, which runs north-east to south-west just north-east of Amberley church, gave the same kind of pottery from under its bank and in its ditch.

Historic England first scheduled the common's earthworks in 1927, and the Bulwarks is now part of a single scheduled monument that also takes in the prehistoric fields, the medieval Amberley Camp, a rabbit warren, the quarries and the anti-glider trenches of the Second World War.

What to see

The bank is still 10m to 12m wide and about 1.5m high at its highest, with its ditch on the east side, 10m wide and about 1.2m deep. Follow it on foot and you can see how it bends in a long arc across the common. The Royal Commission's survey of 1976 traced it for at least 1⅛ miles, about 1.8km, and judged that, carried on by a second bank, the Bulwarks probably once surrounded an area of more than 200 acres that the town now largely fills.

Come in low light, early or late in the day or in winter, when the shadows pick out the bank and ditch in the turf. Elsewhere on the common you will find the humps of old quarries and the low pillow mounds of the warren.

Visiting

The Bulwarks lies on open National Trust common land, free, with no gates or opening hours. The ground is grass, uneven and without surfaced paths. Cattle graze the common between May and October, Stroud District Council's leaflet for the commons says, and wander across the roads, so drive slowly. Dogs are welcome under close control; the National Trust asks for a short lead around livestock and from March to August, when skylarks and other birds nest on the ground. Please do not dig, drive or ride on the bank: it is protected as a scheduled monument.

Getting there

From the Market Square in the town, Bell Lane runs past Holy Trinity Church onto the common, and the bank is a few minutes' walk north. By car, use the small National Trust car parks beside the roads across the common, or the Friday Street car park in the town (GL6 9JL). Stagecoach West's 620 bus from Stroud stops in the Market Square and at Tom Long's Post, on the common, about six or seven times a day each way, Monday to Saturday, with no Sunday service.

Nearby

The Neolithic long barrow of Whitfield's Tump is on the north-west of the same common, and the Long Stone stands in farmland south-east of the town. North across the road is Rodborough Common, with its castellated Rodborough Fort. The Old Lodge, the inn on the common, and the Amberley Inn are the places for lunch, and our guide to Stroud and the Five Valleys covers the valleys below.