Iron Age Shropshire (800 BC - 43 AD)

Introduction to Shropshire in the Iron Age period.

The Iron Age was the period in the history of man when Iron began to be used as the main material for weapons, tools and other objects. In common with the Stone Age and the Bronze Age the dating of the Iron Age varies for different communities in different parts of the world, as the adoption of Iron would have taken place at different times. It is the last stage of the ‘3-age system’, which incorporates the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, and refers to the primary material used in tools and implements at each time. In reality the change from one period to the next would have been gradual but archaeologists give them a more defined timeframe for convenience.

In the beginning Iron would have been used for prestige and religious objects before coming into more general use.

It was a period when people began to organise themselves into communities and build permanent settlements and the population continued to grow. There may have been as many as 1-2 million people in Britain when the Romans invaded. Agriculture was also explored to a greater extent. The main livestock kept in the Iron Age were cattle and sheep. Both provided meat as well as leather and wool and manure to spread on the crops. Cattle were also used to pull the ploughs. We also know that people in Iron Age Britain kept goats and pigs. Crops grown included oats, wheat, barley and rye as well as peas, beans, onions and cabbage.

The most noticeable remains of the Iron Age in Shropshire are the hillforts that are situated around the county. Bronze Age evidence has been found within some of them but the structures themselves are ultimately the work of Iron Age man.

The hillforts in Shropshire vary in size from Bodbury Ring which encloses just 2.5 acres and the massive Titterstone Clee hillfort which covers 71 acres and is one of the largest in Britain. Hillforts were usually positioned to take defensive advantage of the landscape and as such are often found on the top of hills, hence the name. They consist of fortified enclosures surrounded by banks and ditches.

In recent decades archaeologists have shown that every hillfort in Shropshire that has been thoroughly investigated would appear to have been permanently occupied. There are thought to be more than 50 Iron Age hillforts in Shropshire.

The typical hillfort is situated to take advantage of a natural elevation in the landscape, giving a good defensive position and commanding views of the surrounding area. The fortifications usually consist of one or more circular or sub-circular earth or stone ramparts (bank), often with external ditches. These constructions would follow the contours of the hill for ease of construction. The most prolific period of hillfort construction in Britain was in the years between c.200 BC and AD 43 when the Romans invasion occurred.

Inside the ramparts of the hillfort there would have been round and square huts. Some would have been used as housing and others for storing items such as grain. The Roundhouse was usually built of upright timber posts interwoven with coppiced wood, which was then daubed with clay, soil, manure and straw to make it warm and waterproof. The roof would have been made of thatch.

In the centre of the roundhouse was an open fire, which would have been used for cooking, heating and light, the smoke escaping through a hole in the roof.

Academics are divided on whether the hillforts of Britain were permanently occupied or simply secure places to retreat to in times of danger. One argument against permanent occupation is that few have their own water supply, which would have been vital (although even a cusory glance at the Ordnance Suvey mapping shows that almost all Shropshire hillforts are within 0.5km of a regular water supply). Dr Stanley Stanford has suggested that Iron Age hillforts could have been home to as many as 250 people per hectare, which means that a site such as the Wrekin hillfort could have housed around 1,000 people.

It has also been suggested that some of the hillforts were inter-dependent, sharing the same culture and coming to each other’s aid in times of need.

One of the finest (and most easily accessible) hillforts in Shropshire is the Old Oswestry fort, just outside the town of the same name. The defences of this hillfort are particularly impressive and elaborate, which they need to be as it sits on such a low hill.

The site covers an area of around 6 hectares and much of the boundary of the hillfort is surrounded by a series of five ramparts (banks) and ditches. There are two entrances, one on the east and one on the west, which would have once been heavily protected by guard towers. On the west entrance are a series of deep rectangular hollows and the true purpose of these is unknown, suggestions range from water tanks, quarries and additional defences.

The hillfort is also known as Caer Ogyrfan after the father-in-law of King Arthur and is said to be the birthplace of Queen Guinevere.

Archaeological excavation has shown that the area of Old Oswestry was occupied in the Bronze Age, before the defences were constructed. The ramparts and ditches date from the Iron Age and were built from 600 BC onwards.

The earliest human evidence uncovered at a hillfort in Shropshire was at the Roveries hillfort in south west Shropshire. Excavations in 1960 revealed the presence of material dating to the Neolithic period (4,000 BC – 2,300 BC), some 2,000 years before the Iron Age hillfort was constructed.

There is also evidence for an increasing number of Iron Age lowland settlements in Shropshire. Traces of farmsteads have been revealed by aerial survey, particularly along the Severn Valley between Montford Bridge and Buildwas.

Iron Age farmsteads appear to have been made up of small groups of circular domestic buildings and associated agricultural structures. They would have supported small communities of family or extended family size. They were largely self-sufficient, producing enough to feed themselves, with any extra being traded. The general impression of Iron Age farmsteads is that they created an organised an efficient form of farming. The farmsteads are often associated with enclosures such as the one at Wilderley Hill Bank (north of Church Stretton) where the remains of a ditch and bank are very distinct. The enclosure was likely to have been used as a pen for holding livestock.

In the 1960’s a site at Weeping Cross, to the South of Shrewsbury was excavated and the foundations of round Iron Age huts within rectangular enclosures encircled by earthern ramparts and ditches.

An Iron Age site at Pave Lane (south west of Newport) is unusual in that it was protected by up to three ditches. Excavations of the bottom of the ditches revealed organic matter which when analysed indicated that the surrounding area was largely grassland in the Iron Age period.

By the year AD 1 it appears that the tribal capital of the area of Shropshire was at the Wrekin hillfort, 13 miles to the West of Shrewsbury.