Details

The monument includes a slightly curved, linear boundary running along the
slope from south west to north east below the crest of a ridge which forms
part of the Sussex Downs, and the south eastern part of Itford Hill
settlement, dating to the Late Bronze Age. The larger part of the settlement
lies 150m to the north west and is the subject of a separate scheduling.
The linear earthwork has a bank c.616m long, c.7m wide and up to c.1.2m high,
flanked on its south eastern, downslope side by a ditch c.5m wide and up to
c.1m deep. Towards the north eastern end of the monument the ditch has become
infilled over the years, but will survive as a buried feature.
The south eastern part of the Bronze Age settlement lies at the north eastern
end of the linear boundary and consists of three, south west-north east
aligned oval-shaped building platforms set against a low earthen bank to the
north west. Part excavation between 1949-52 showed the north easternmost of
these to contain three circular timber buildings representing houses, food and
textile preparation huts or stock shelters. Finds discovered during the
excavation suggest that the settlement was in use during the tenth to eighth
centuries BC. These included pottery sherds, loomweights, carbonised grain,
fragments of saddle querns and the bones of cattle and sheep or goats. Among
the more unusual artefacts found were part of an armlet made of shale from
Kimmeredge in Dorset and a carved chalk phallus.
The modern fences which cross the monument are excluded from the scheduling,
although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or
multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between
less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features
visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The
evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that
their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although
they may have been re-used later.
The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were
constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries
in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of
their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious
associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those
groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance
for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well
preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

Itford Hill style settlements are small domestic settlements of one to three
households, usually covering an area of between 1ha and 3ha, comprising a
series of small banked compounds set back to back. The compounds are
frequently associated with tracks and hollow ways which link the settlements
to field systems, and round barrow cemeteries are often nearby. The
settlements date to the Late Bronze Age (tenth to eighth centuries BC).
Excavated examples have shown that the compounds usually contain circular
wooden buildings varying in diameter from 3m to 8m, with entrance porches.
Associated with these structures would have been a series of working areas and
fenced compounds; small ponds have also been found. Finds, including
loomweights and carbonised grain, provide evidence for the practice of a mixed
farming economy.
Itford Hill style settlements are found in southern England, principally in
the chalk downland of Sussex. They are a rare monument type, with less than 20
examples known nationally.
Pook's Dyke linear boundary and the south eastern part of the settlement on
Itford Hill survive well, despite some levelling of the earthworks over the
years, and the settlement has been shown by part excavation to contain a wide
range of archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the period in
which it was constructed and used. The close association of these broadly
contemporary monuments will provide evidence for the relationship between land
division and settlement during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Burstow, G P, Holleyman, G A, 'Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society' in Late Bronze Age Settlement on Itford Hill, Sussex, , Vol. XXIII, (1957), 167-212
Ellison, A, 'Council for British Archaeology Research Report' in The Bronze Age of Sussex, , Vol. 29, (1978), 30-37
Other
source 2, RCHME, TQ 40 NW 2, (1972)

Source: Historic England