Autumn 2018

Autumn 2018 Chilterns Conservation Board
Volume 1, Issue 1
The Hillfortian Times

Inside this issue: The Beacons Are Lit! - Project launched, first of many events

Fran Momen

LiDAR—what’s it all 2 Beacons of the Past was
about? officially launched on Sep-
tember 15th, with an after-
Meet our LiDAR survey 2 noon of prehistoric crafts at
team Desborough Castle Park,
High Wycombe. The event
What’s on ? - 3 attracted over 100 visitors tion by Dr Peter Hommel
including volunteers and who also cast replica coins
Workshops & Fieldwork local residents. Mayor Sara- and brooches in pewter -
faz Khan Raja and Council- remarkable skills that dis-
Our partners 3 lor Mohammed Hanif were played Iron Age technolo-
4 amongst our visitors, host- gies.
Featured feature: ed by CCB Chairman Ian
Desborough Castle Reay and Chief Officer Sue Steph Rodgers of the Chil-
Holden. tern Rangers hosted a
HSpiellcfioarltpFouinntsFaocftisn- 'build-a-box' workshop Castle, and outlined the
The Iron Age was brought which attracted lots of exciting opportunities
·teTrehsetr:e are over 4000 to life with a variety of younger visitors to create ahead for volunteers and
hillforts recorded in· Briefly highlight your point of interest here. demonstrations that fea- an array of brightly deco- enthusiasts. At dusk, two
the UK· Briefly highlight your point of interest here. tured typical skills and rated boxes; these will be beacons were lit - one on
methods familiar to Iron positioned in and around Desborough Castle and
· Hillforts are also· Briefly highlight your point of interest here. Age people. Kim Biddulph Desborough Castle and the other on West
found all over· Briefly highlight your point of interest here. was our very own Beacons' Castlefield woods. There Wycombe Hill.
Master Chef, presenting her was also Iron Age 'Celtic'
northern Europe cooking along with samples facepainting by Jen Quille This marks the first of
of bread, butter, cheese and and, as a result, a good many such events that
· The largest hillfort more - all made with pre- many decorated young fac- will be occurring around
in Europe is Maid- historic techniques and in- es were seen running the AONB over the next
en Castle, Dorset— gredients, of course. Will around! 3 years, so watch for
47 acres! Mills demonstrated flint news alerts for when pre-
tool making techniques, Chilterns Conservation history is coming to a
and David Willis taught Board member Alison Dog- location near you!
prehistoric bushcraft using gett spoke of the origins of
nettles and other plants to the project, particularly Photo credits : Colin Drake
make string and rope. recalling the effort and de-
termination shown by the 1
Visitors witnessed the first late Shirley Judges, CCB
prehistoric furnace at Des- board member who is
borough Castle since... well greatly missed.
we may find out later in the
project! But in the mean- Dr Wendy Morrison, Pro-
time, we were treated to a ject Manager, welcomed
copper smelting demonstra- local residents to their very
own hillfort at Desborough

Page 2 The Hillfortian Times Volume 1, Issue 1

At over 1300 km2, the LiDAR—What’s it all about?
Beacons of the Past
LiDAR survey is the Increasingly, archaeolo- LiDAR works using a The images on the left
largest high-resolution gists are using a range of laser scanner, which show a tree-covered Bod-
archaeological survey in technological tools to sur- shoots out thousands of dington Camp in Wendo-
vey areas and identify pulses of light towards ver Woods (above) and a
the UK! buried structures. Satel- the ground and then us- processed multiple hill-
lite photography, Google es sensors to detect any shade visualistion from
Earth and even Radar reflections. By measuring Environment Agency
have enabled successful the time it takes between (EA) LiDAR data
discoveries worldwide, in sending out a pulse and (below). See how the hill-
areas from the Nile Val- its return, millions of ac- fort emerges from the
ley to Angkor Wat in curate measurements are trees?
Cambodia. taken, and then pro-
LiDAR, which stands for cessed to create a digital This EA survey was a
Light Detection and model of the ter- partial coverage at 1m
Ranging (also known as rain. Crucially the indi- resolution, whilst ours
Airborne Laser Scanning) vidual points can be clas- will be at 25cm— our
is another tool favoured sified as vegetation, next newsletter will detail
by archaeologists. First buildings or the ground the difference this can
developed in the 1960s surface. Then trees and make, and what it means
and used NASA in 1971 buildings can be filtered to the archaeology all
to map the surface of the out. Leaving a model of around us!
moon, the technique was the humps and bumps of
adopted by archaeolo- the ground surface. These Our LiDAR surveys will
gists at the turn of the can be digitally enhanced be flown between No-
millennium. to enable better visualisa- vember 2018 and Febru-
LiDAR offers the great tion of archaeological fea- ary 2019 – so excitement is
advantage of being used tures, such as barrows, building! Capturing more
to map large areas very ramparts and of course, detailed data about Chil-
quickly, especially those hillforts. terns hillforts may even
under dense vegetation. lead to finding undiscov-
ered hillforts.

Meet our LiDAR survey team

Based in Cheddar and Once that is done, it’s over Cyient, established in
flying from Liverpool, to the Beacons of the Past 1991, provides engineer-
Cyient Europe (formerly team to spot the archaeol- ing, manufacturing, geo-
BLOM) is providing the ogy represented by the spatial, network and oper-
survey. This includes both humps and bumps in the ations management ser-
the acquisition of the data, ground. vices to global industry
by flying over the entire leaders. With over 15,000
1300 km2, and processing Commercial Director Si- employees in 21 countries,
the data, which will entail mon Kraeter says, “We Cyient partners with cli-
classifying the billions of are delighted to have been ents to operate as part of
points into categories that chosen to work with the their extended team, in
can then be used to ‘filter Chiltern Conservation ways that best suit their
out’ the surface clutter Board on what promises organisation’s culture and
(trees, buildings, etc.) to be a very interesting requirements.
project.”

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The Hillfortian Times Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3

What’s coming up? Each issue, this area will
list opportunities for
What: Topographical Survey Training getting involved in the
When: Saturday 20 October 0900-1630 Project.
Where: Cholesbury Camp, Cholesbury (Additional events that
This is a day of training for those who would like learn topographic survey skills in the field,
or who would like to brush up skills so they may go on to train others later in the project. arise between editions will
Led by Dr Olaf Bayer of Historic England, this event is limited to 12 individuals. still be sent out in emails)

What: Hillfort Scrub Bashing

When: Wednesday 14 November 0915-1500

Where: Pulpit Hill, Cadsden

Paul Dean will guide us in beating the scrub back to help preserve this amazing hillfort. Safety training, as well as
Tools and gloves appropriate for the task will be supplied on the day. Bring you own pack luck and drinks. We will
be burning the cuttings, so wear old clothes, and bring a spud for baking in the fire if you like! This event is limited

What: An introduction to using GIS for Archaeology

When: Saturday 24 November 1000-1400

Where: Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe

Join Dr Ed Peveler for a 4-hour session aiming to give you an introduction to working with spatial data in GIS, in-
cluding a theoretical background on subjects such as data model types and coordinate systems, and a more specific
workflow for loading, manipulating, and analysing LiDAR data in different formats. The session will be aimed at
complete beginners to GIS, using the open source QGIS software - freely available online- so you can go home and
develop your skills further. The event is limited to 19 people.

To participate in an event, fill in the form linked in the title. If numbers
are limited, all participants will be entered into a random ballot to fill

the spaces.
*************
If you don’t get a space, there will be plenty of repeat events, so keep trying!

A big shout out to our project partners

The success of this project rests on three legs—

· Heritage Lottery Funding, thanks to the support of all
who play the National Lottery

· Our dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, without
whom we simply couldn't deliver the project

· The financial and in-kind support of our Project Part-
ners. All across the AONB, Societies, Authorities,
Charities, and Individuals are lending a hand, and we
want to say :

THANK YOU!

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Featured Feature: Desborough Castle Fiona McKendrick

The site of Desborough Castle, Late Neolithic and Bronze Age rounding ditch recut for the
popularly known as the Round- flints, used for cutting and scrap- same reason. This construction
about, is perfect for defence and ing. phase may have been intended
control. The steep hill face to the An alternative explanation for as a defensive measure to pro-
West would have acted as a nat- the ridge could be that it formed tect the vulnerable uphill side
ural barrier, and the location part of a barrier designed to of the castle, by creating a sec-
allows for commanding views to keep people (and animals) in: ondary outer wall around it
the north. The impressive medi- some hillforts are thought to incorporating the original Iron
eval castle site is clearly visible have functioned as animal enclo- Age ridge.
today, but around its edges lie sures, with local shepherds and
traces of an Iron Age hillfort, pastoralists using the hilltop for It has been suggested that the
potentially dating back as far as their herds in the spring and castle, like others built during
1000 BC. With a history of hu- summer. Desborough occupies the Anarchy (1135 – 1153), was
man activity lasting over 4000 more than 6 ha in size but has a ‘siege castle’ where King Ste-
years, Desborough Castle is a little archaeological evidence of phen may have established a
complex site which allows us to buildings/cooking/waste dis- base given its strategic location
study human culture, daily life, posal. to the Wye Valley and the
and land use change from pre- roads connecting Oxford and
historic times to the medieval Desborough after the Iron Age Wallingford to the west.
ages. Roman (AD 43 – 410) pottery,
tile and metalworks found in After King Stephen’s reign, the
View over the Iron Age earthwork medieval ditch fills at Des- castle continued to be a pres-
towards the tree-covered medieval borough suggest that the Chil- tigious residence until the 13th
banks terns was densely settled in Ro- century; the defences were
man times, perhaps even on the maintained, substantial build-
Prehistoric Desborough Desborough Castle site itself. ings were erected, and occu-
A man-made ridge follows the pants dined on deer, a dish
line of today’s Booker Lane into Later in Anglo-Saxon times (AD confined to the nobility.
the field and around the castle 410 – 1066), Desborough gave its Desborough’s fortunes de-
ringworks to the west and north: name to a ‘hundred’- an admin- clined thereafter and finally,
possibly the remains of a semi- istrative region- and it is possible the ditches and defences were
circular defensive rampart pro- that the hilltop was a meeting backfilled, and the area used
tecting the site. The date of the place. which often were sited on as farmland until this century.
rampart and the associated ditch or near ancient earthworks.
on the outside remains uncer- Desborough Castle earthworks as
tain; however its form and the The medieval castle’s defensive visualized through Environment
area of land it enclosed (c. 10 ha) bank and ditch were constructed Agency LiDAR data
is consistent with other Late in the style of the new Norman
Bronze Age and Iron Age hill- aristocracy. The pottery evidence
forts. No other evidence has at Desborough makes it unclear
been identified, except for a few when the castle was built, but
the ditches around the castle
date to the early to mid-twelfth
century.
The prehistoric defences were
likely still upstanding when the
castle was constructed and may
have been reused as an outer
wall for the castle, with the sur-

Phone: (+44) (0)1844 355 525 Visit us at www.chilternsaonb.org
Email: [email protected]
@chilforts #Chilforts
[email protected]

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