Mellor hill fort
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Mellor hill fort is a prehistoric site in North West England, that dates from the British Iron Age—about 800 BC to 100 AD. Situated on a hill in Mellor,
Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
, on the western edge of the
Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...
, the
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 ...
overlooks the
Cheshire Plain The Cheshire Plain is a relatively flat expanse of lowland within the county of Cheshire in North West England but extending south into Shropshire. It extends from the Mersey Valley in the north to the Shropshire Hills in the south, bounded b ...
. Although the settlement was founded during the Iron Age, evidence exists of activity on the site as far back as 8,000 BC; during 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 prin ...
the hill may have been an area where funerary practices were performed. Artefacts such as a Bronze Age amber necklace indicate the site was high status and that its residents took part in long-distance trade. The settlement was occupied into the Roman period. After the site was abandoned, probably in the 4th century, it was forgotten until its rediscovery in the 1990s.


Location

Mellor lies on the western edge of the Peak District in the
Metropolitan Borough of Stockport The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England, south-east of central Manchester. As well as the towns of Stockport, Bredbury and Marple, it includes the outlying areas of Hazel ...
. At , the known site of the Iron Age settlement in Mellor is partially under St Thomas Church and extends into the gardens of several nearby houses. It is on a
spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...
about above sea level, between two valleys which drop steeply away and run west where the two small streams in the valleys meet the
River Goyt The River Goyt is a tributary of the River Mersey in North West England. Etymology The name ''Goyt'' may be derived from the Middle English ''gote'', meaning "a watercourse, a stream". Derivation from the Welsh ''gwyth'' meaning "vein" has bee ...
, approximately above sea level. The site commands views of the Cheshire Plain and
Alderley Edge Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. In 2011, it had a population of 4,780. Alderley Edge is northwest of Macclesfield and south of Manchester, at the base of a steep and thickly wooded sandstone escarpment, Alder ...
to the south and the range of hills to the north. Although there are higher points locally, the site has access to a water supply and the river valleys, and there is flat land to the west which could have been used agriculturally.


Background

Until the 19th century little was known about
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 ...
s; none had been excavated and their original purpose had long been forgotten. In the
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
period their origin was ascribed to various iconic figures such as
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
, King Arthur,
King Alfred Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who ...
, the Danes, and even
giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) *Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
. By the 18th century it was thought that hill forts were
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
in origin.Cunliffe (1983), p. 11. Opinion changed again in the 19th century following a large scale investigation by Augustus Pitt-Rivers, who concluded that hill forts were built during the Iron Age. The study of hill forts was popular in the 19th century, with a revival in the 20th century due to excavations at
Danebury Danebury is an Iron Age hill fort in Hampshire, England, about north-west of Winchester (). Retrieved on 23 July 2008. The site, covering , was excavated by Barry Cunliffe in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, a ...
.Cunliffe (1983), p. 12. However it was not until the 1990s that the settlement at Mellor was discovered; the site had a lack of tell-tale earthworks, such as a circular ditch (which would indicate ancient activity).Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 20. Excavations began in 1998 where unusual marks had been noted in 1995 during a drought. Instead of the medieval ditch the marks were thought to denote, the ditch of an Iron Age hill fort was revealed. As of 2009 the excavations are ongoing. Before these excavations began, relatively little was known about the prehistory of the Stockport area before about 1,200 BC.Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 49. It was generally thought that the areas of
Marple Marple may refer to: Places * Marple, Greater Manchester, a town close to Stockport, in England ** Marple Bridge, a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester ** Marple railway station in Marple, Greater Manches ...
and Mellor had been mostly untouched by prehistoric human activity, including during the Romano-British period. Little is known about Iron Age activity in North West England as pottery is rare on the sites excavated in the region, and there is a dearth of settlement sites. Of the more than 1,300 hill forts found in England relatively few are in the northwest. The paucity of known sites led archaeologist Colin Haselgrove to describe the region as a "black hole" for the Iron Age. Mellor is the only hill fort in Greater Manchester, and one of four known Iron Age settlement sites in the county.Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 52.


History

There is evidence of human activity on the site pre-dating the Iron Age, as far back as 8,000–6,000 BC. During this period Mellor may have been a knap site where
flint tool A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...
s were produced, and also may have been a seasonal camp. Over 200  lithics have been recovered and range from the early to the late Mesolithic. A high proportion of the flints are bladed tools, indicating that the people who produced them were
hunter gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle (sociology), lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants bu ...
s.
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 prin ...
artefacts are rare on the site, and there is no definitive indication of habitation in this period. Despite this, it is likely that the long-term habitation of the site had its roots in the late Bronze Age. A flint dagger was discovered on the site. This type of artefact is rare in Greater Manchester; the nearest comparable site is in
Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the west side of the Pennine hills. Areas include Austerlands, Del ...
. Its presence has been taken as an indication that during the Bronze Age the site was used for funerary practices. Many of the hills near Mellor are surmounted by Bronze Age funerary monuments such as Brown Low, Shaw Cairn, and
Werneth Low Werneth Low (; ) is a hill in Greater Manchester, England, and a part of the Pennines. It is located on the borders of Stockport and Tameside, rising to a height of . The villages of Woodley, Greave, Gee Cross, Mottram and Romiley lie on the s ...
, supporting the possibility that Mellor was also a funerary site. Also dating from the Bronze Age and found on the site was a rare high-status
amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...
necklace. Amber does not occur naturally in Britain – the nearest source is the Baltic. It would have been traded over long distances. The necklace was discovered as part of a 4,000‑year‑old burial. The hill fort was built in and used throughout the Iron Age, as demonstrated by finds from the site which span the period.Nevell & Redhead (2005), pp. 23–24. Occupants lived in roundhouses, and habitation of the site was spread over a long period. In common with many other hill forts, the site was probably divided into separate areas for habitation, industry, and agricultural activities such as storage, although the layout of these areas changed over time. Excavations indicate that the area enclosed by the inner ditch was used mainly for habitation, while the area between the inner and outer ditches was agricultural. The separation was not necessarily fixed as some of the outer area shows signs that it was used as a living space. The Roman fort of Melandra is nearby. Fragments of glass, possibly Roman in origin, and shards of pottery which date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, indicate the site was used in the Romano-British period. However no Roman structures have been discovered, and the nature of Roman activity at the site is a source of speculation. The position of the hilltop indicate that it was easily defended; however, local finds indicate it was a high-status settlement rather than a military outpost unless a similar feature was located nearby. One reason that Roman structures have not been identified is that the Romano-British inhabitants may have used roundhouses rather than buildings of a typically rectilinear Roman style. This would make them more difficult to differentiate from Iron Age roundhouses and would imply a continuation of local culture rather than an imposition of Roman style. It is also possible that Romans simply influenced the area, rather than actively occupying the site. The site was later abandoned and forgotten until its rediscovery in the 1990s.


Investigation

With sites such as Danebury where there is no modern habitation or
built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human a ...
, extensive excavations can be undertaken to establish the general layout. The modern settlement of Mellor extends over the Iron Age hill fort, which restricts archaeological investigation. A
geophysical survey Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the E ...
was performed to establish the extent of the settlement; methods such as
magnetometry A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...
and
ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a Geophysics, geophysical method that uses radar pulses to Geophysical imaging, image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, ...
were successful in identifying the eastern and northern sections of the ditch encircling the site. Excavations have been concentrated around the Old Vicarage. By 2004 there were 43 trenches, 14 trial trenches, and 17 test pits. The investigation of the site has revealed two ditches. While the external ditch encloses a larger area, it has smaller dimensions than the internal ditch. The chronological relation between the two ditches is uncertain. The internal ditch has been cut into the
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
bedrock and is wide and deep; there was a palisade beyond the inner edge of the ditch. At some point, part of the ditch was refilled and a
posthole In archaeology a posthole or post-hole is a cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone. They are usually much deeper than they are wide; however, truncation may not make this apparent. Although the remains of the timber may survive, most ...
inserted into it, possibly relating to a gateway. Artefacts recovered from the ditch indicate that the inhabitants of the site had links with salt-producing communities in lowland Cheshire. The
Very Coarse Pottery Briquetage or very coarse pottery (VCP) is a coarse ceramic material used to make evaporation vessels and supporting pillars used in extracting salt from brine or seawater. Thick-walled saltpans were filled with saltwater and heated from below ...
(VCP) which was used to contain the salt at Mellor is similar to fragments recovered from the Iron Age site at
Beeston Castle Beeston Castle is a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England (), perched on a rocky sandstone crag above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester (1170–1232), on his return from th ...
. A layer of charcoal has been
radiocarbon dated Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
to 830–190 BC. The latest deposits in the ditch include hundreds of fragments of Roman pottery dating from the 1st to 4th centuries, bronze Roman brooches, and Roman nails. The outer ditch is wide and deep, and like the inner ditch was cut in the local bedrock. A rare Iron Age pot was recovered from the outer ditch, with 125 shards found.Nevell & Redhead (2005), p. 26. The material used to make the pot originated about away in Castleton,
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
. The pot was found in one of the earliest contexts in the ditch, and dates to the Iron Age. It was probably deliberately placed at the bottom of the ditch as part of a ritual after a significant event such as digging the ditch. While the inner ditch did have a palisade, neither ditch had a bank associated with it. The archaeological excavations that have been undertaken since 1998 are funded by
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The council is currently run by a Liberal Democrat minority administration. At the 2022 local elections, the ...
and grants from the
Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
, and have received news coverage. The site is used as a training excavation for students and a community dig to introduce people to ancient history, with the participation of Mellor Archaeological Trust. In 2002, students from Ridge Danyers Sixth Form College built a replica roundhouse that is still standing on the site. Many of the artefacts discovered at Mellor during the excavations are on permanent display at Stockport Museum. The site is open to the public annually, in the first week of September, so that people can view the work done over the past season of digging.


See also

* Brown Low – an Early Bronze Age funerary monument north of Mellor * Castlesteads, Greater Manchester – an Iron Age promontory fort in Bury *
Mam Tor Mam Tor is a hill near Castleton in the High Peak of Derbyshire, England. Its name means "mother hill", so called because frequent landslips on its eastern face have resulted in a multitude of "mini-hills" beneath it. These landslips, which ...
– Iron Age hill fort about away in Derbyshire


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * *


External links


Mellor Heritage Project
run by the Mellor Archaeological Trust {{Iron Age hillforts in England Archaeological sites in Greater Manchester Hill forts in Greater Manchester History of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Tourist attractions in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport