Brackenbury Ditches hill fort

Brackenbury Ditches is an Iron Age hill fort on a spur of the Cotswold escarpment in Westridge Wood, between Wotton Hill and the Tyndale Monument and about 2km north of Wotton-under-Edge. Its ramparts are hidden in the trees, and an information board beside the track marks them.

History

Brackenbury Ditches is counted among the Iron Age hill forts of the Cotswold Edge. It had not been excavated when the Royal Commission surveyed it in 1976, so nothing more exact is known of its date or how long it was used. Historic England schedules it as an ancient monument under the name Brackenbury camp.

The Royal Commission's survey of the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, published in 1976, is the fullest description. It records a fort enclosing about 1.6 hectares at the tip of the spur, with two lines of defence across the side facing the plateau. An entrance on the south-east side was approached from the vale by a sunken way. The survey also notes older names for the fort: Blackenbury, and Becketsbury in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Historic England's scheduling calls it a slight univallate hillfort with outworks: a roughly triangular enclosure defined on two sides by a simple rampart bank, with an outer ditch about 6m wide and 1.2m deep. It suggests the outer line may be a slightly later phase of the fort, and notes that natural hollows inside were once mistaken for hut circles.

What to look for

Brackenbury Ditches is best seen in winter, when the leaves are down and the banks show through the trees. Look for:

• the inner rampart on the north-east side, the big one: about 15m wide and 3m high;
• the ditch beyond it, about 14m wide and 2.4m deep;
• the outer rampart further out across the spur, about 1.5m high with a ditch outside it;
• the sunken way climbing to the south-east entrance from the vale;
• the steep natural slopes round the tip of the spur, which needed no rampart;
• the history board beside the track, by the earthworks.

The paths through Westridge Wood pass beech trees, with a conifer plantation to one side, the Cotswolds National Landscape's route notes say.

Visiting

Brackenbury Ditches is free to see at any time from the track through Westridge Wood. The banks and ditches are steep and often slippery, so take care if you leave the track, and keep dogs under control. Walkers on AllTrails warn of loose stones and mud on the track after rain.

Getting there

By car, walkers report a small parking area beside Old London Road above Wotton-under-Edge, mapped as free roadside parking, where our shorter walk starts. Otherwise use Wotton's council car parks at The Chipping and Potters Pond, for which Stroud District Council lists no charge, and walk up past Jubilee Clump.

On foot, Wotton Hill and the Tyndale Monument and Wotton, the Tyndale Monument and Coombe Hill both pass the board and the earthworks on the broad track north through the wood, and the Cotswold Way passes the fort on its way through Westridge Wood.

Nearby

The Tyndale Monument is about 1km north on Nibley Knoll, and Jubilee Clump is just over 1km south on Wotton Hill. In Wotton-under-Edge, St Mary's Church has the Berkeley brasses, and the Royal Oak on Haw Street serves food.