Harrow Hill is an archaeological site in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. It is on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...

about north of the village of

Angmering Angmering is a village and civil parish between Littlehampton and Worthing in West Sussex on the southern edge of the South Downs National Park, England; about two-thirds of the parish (mostly north of the A27 road) fall within the Park. It is ...

and north-west of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

. There is

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

flint mine Flint mining is the process of extracting flint from underground. Flint mines can be as simple as a pit on the surface or an area of quarrying, or it may refer to a series of shafts and tunnels used to extract flint. Flint has been mined since t ...

, and a Martin Down style enclosure of the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. The site is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Description

Flint mine

The flint mine is on the crown of the hill, occupying about , there are about 245 mine shafts and pits. The shafts survive as circular hollows of diameter up to and depth ; there are spoil heaps of height up to . The southern part of the area, where there is hummocky ground, is thought to show a slightly different period of mining. A shaft was excavated in 1924–25: its width was and it was found to be deep. There had been some exploitation of upper levels of flint, and there were six radiating galleries at the bottom of the pit.Richard Wainwright. ''A guide to the Prehistoric Remains in Britain. Volume One: South and East''. Constable and Co, 1978. Page 242. Some galleries had engraved designs above the entrances, which may have been miners' tallies. An antler pick from a shaft has been radio-carbon dated to about 3710 BC. Flint was mined probably for trading elsewhere. The flint mine at

Cissbury Cissbury Ring is an biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Worthing in West Sussex. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated a Scheduled monument for its Neolithic flint mine and Iron Age hillfort. Cissbury Ring is ...

, about to the south-east, dates from about the same time. There are also flint mines near Harrow Hill, at Church Hill, about south-east, and at

Blackpatch Blackpatch is an archaeological site in West Sussex, England, about west of the village of Findon and about north-west of Worthing. It is the site of a Neolithic flint mine, and Bronze Age barrows. The site is a scheduled monument. Descript ...

, about south-east.

Martin Down style enclosure

The Martin Down style enclosure, interpreted as a domestic settlement, is named after the Bronze Age enclosure on Martin Down in Hampshire. It is a rectangle aligned west–east, and at the north-east corner it partly overlies mine shafts on the southern side of the mining area. There is a bank up to wide and high, with an external ditch, enclosing an area of about ; there is an entrance on the west side. It was partly excavated in 1936. Pottery sherds from about 600 BC were found, and skulls of 50 to 100 oxen. There was once a timber gateway at the entrance, and the bank had a timber

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

References

{{reflist Hills of West Sussex Scheduled monuments in West Sussex Prehistoric mines Bronze Age sites in West Sussex Worthing