Summary

The upstanding and buried remains of a mid-to late Iron Age farmstead enclosure situated on the SE slopes of Garway Hill Common, approximately 500m ESE of the summit of Garway Hill. Artefacts found on the site include pottery sherds dated to the mid-to late Iron Age, and the platform of a roundhouse. There is a subsidiary enclosure to the immediate east.

Source: Historic England

Details

Principal elements: the upstanding and buried remains of an Iron Age farmstead enclosure situated on the SE slopes of Garway Hill Common, approximately 500m ESE of the summit of Garway Hill. Artefacts found on the site include pottery sherds dated to the mid-to late Iron Age, and the platform of a roundhouse. There is a subsidiary enclosure to the immediate east.

Description: the Iron Age farmstead is delimited by a sub-rectangular enclosure. The banks vary in length from approximately 50m to 64m, and are approximately 5m wide, and 2m to 3m high. The corresponding ditches survive at a depth of 1m to 2m and are between 3m and 5m wide. The S ditch is no longer visible due to the collapsed material from the S bank. The W bank and SW corner have been disturbed by post-medieval quarrying. The entrance to the enclosure is thought to be along the E bank where a modern track runs into the interior of the enclosure. A trench at this point found that there is no evidence of a cut in the bank, suggesting the position of the original entrance. In the southern half of the enclosure is the platform of a round house with possible evidence for a hearth, as well as a sherd of pottery dated between the C5 BC and the late Iron Age. Further pottery sherds from a single vessel dated to the mid-Iron Age, and various pottery sherds dating from between the C5 BC and the late Iron Age were identified in the E ditch of the enclosure.

Parallel with the E bank is a further enclosure constructed upon a natural terrace. It measures approximately 35m by 25m, and has a break in its E extent aligned with the supposed entrance to the principal enclosure. It may have been an annex to the settlement space or an area of agricultural activity relating to the farmstead.

A post-medieval field boundary runs on a N to S alignment through the enclosure and another runs on an E to W alignment from the SE corner. The C13 and C14 cultivation terraces to the S abut the S bank and ditch of the enclosure.  These features, along with the current field boundary on the NE edge of the scheduled monument add value to the significance of the monument by enriching our understanding of the changing agricultural landscape in the vicinity.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING

The scheduling aims to protect the farmstead enclosure, and the subsidiary enclosure to the east. The scheduled area follows the NE field boundary and a line approximately 10m beyond the outer ditch of both enclosures to incorporate a sample of the surrounding archaeology. The maximum extent of the monument is approximately 128m west to east by 98m north to south.

EXCLUSIONS

All modern fences and fence posts are excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath them is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The Iron Age farmstead enclosure on Garway Hill, Herefordshire is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: the enclosure survives well as upstanding and buried remains, and has a range of features associated with its use;
* Period: as a representative example of a singular farmstead enclosure of the Iron Age period, with evidence for continued agricultural use within and alongside the monument in the medieval and post-medieval period;
* Potential: the good survival of the site and the soil conditions, suggest that there is good archaeological potential for a diverse range of features associated with its settlement activity such as the remains of roundhouses, grain and storage pits, cess pits, refuse pits;
* Documentation: our understanding of the site is enhanced by an archaeological evaluation of the site in 2006, and previous recording in 1967 and 1972.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Kay, R E, 'Three Unrecorded Earthworks from South-west Herefordshire' in Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club transactions, , Vol. 39, (1967), 40-43
Websites
Monument No. 107748, accessed 23 January 2017 from http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=107748
Other
Herefordshire Archaeology, 'Garway Hill Common, Garway, Herefordshire: An Archaeological Evaluation'. (December 2006)
RAF/106G/UK/ 1652 frames 1161 and 1162, The Historic England Archive

Source: Historic England