The Herefordshire Beacon is one of the highest peaks of the

Malvern Hills The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit aff ...

, and is high enough to be classified as a mountain. It is surrounded by a

British Iron Age The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric I ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

earthwork known as British Camp. The fort subsequently had a ringwork and bailey castle built inside its boundary and there is evidence of 120 huts in the area. British Camp has been a scheduled monument since 1923. On the eastern slope of Herefordshire Beacon, there is a disused reservoir, British Camp Reservoir, which holds approximately of water.

Geography

Herefordshire Beacon represents one of the

, high, and is the second highest summit in the hills. It is within the county of

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...

, but is directly adjacent to the border with

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

to the east.

British Camp

Atop Herefordshire Beacon, there is an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

hill fort, known as British Camp, and would have held a settlement between 4th century BCE and 1st century CE. A ringwork and bailey castle was built within the site of the hill fort, and there is evidence of 120 huts having been built within the boundaries of the fort. The hill fort received

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 ...

status on 10 August 1923. Nearby to British Camp, on the eastern slope of Herefordshire Beacon, there is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

called British Camp Reservoir. It has a capacity of , although it has not been used for many years. In 2017,

Severn Trent Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...

proposed to dismantle the treatment plant associated with the reservoir and drain it, leaving an pond.

References

External links

{{Authority control Hills of Herefordshire Malvern Hills