Home / England / Cheshire West and Chester / Maiden Castle, Bickerton
Maiden Castle, Bickerton
Cheshire West and Chester, England · Atlas EN3189
Location
- Atlas number
- EN3189 (3189)
- Country
- England
- Current county or unitary authority
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Historic county
- Cheshire
- Parish, community, or townland
- Bickerton
- National Grid reference
- SJ49775289
- Latitude
- 53.07086
- Longitude
- -2.75116
- Altitude
- 211 m
Form and condition
- Type
- level-terrain fort
- Condition
- Extant
- Morphology
- partial bivallate
- Complete rampart circuit
- No
- Number of ramparts
- 2
- Ramparts by quadrant
- NE 2, SE 2, SW 2, NW 0
- Number of ditches
- 1
- Possible original entrances
- 2
- Breaks through the ramparts
- 2
- Enclosed area
- 0.72 ha
- Enclosing works, as visible
- earthen bank and other burning
- Enclosing works, excavated
- earthen bank, stone wall, timber-laced wall, vitrification, other burning, and palisade
- Also recorded
- ditches
- Entrance forms
- In-turned (North east); Simple Gap (South)
Landscape
- Topographic position
- cliff, plateau edge, or scarp
- Aspect
- level
- Land use
- scrub or bracken
Dating
- Dating
- 800–400 BC and 400 BC–AD 50
- Dating evidence
- C14
- Dating reliability
- B - Medium
Interior and investigation
- Interior excavation
- postholes and quarry hollows
- Finds
- pottery and lithics
- Investigations
- 1st Identified Written Reference (1882); Geophysical Survey (1996); LiDAR Survey (2010); Geophysical Survey (2011); 1st Identified Map Depiction (1874-1875); Excavation (1934-1935); Excavation (1980-1981); Other (2007-2011); Earthwork S
Identifiers
- Scheduled monument number
- 1013293
- HER
- Cheshire MCH5717 (second identifier 341/1)
- National record
- record SJ 45 SE 4; monument 68844
- Wikidata
- Q31053171
Sources
References
- Brooks, I.P. and Williams, S. 2010. Maiden Castle geophysical survey, May 2011, EAS Client Report 2011/08, Blaenau Ffestiniog: Engineering Archaeological Services.
- Garner, D. 2012. Hillforts of the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge, Monograph, Habitats and Hillforts Landscape Partnership Scheme, Chester: Cheshire West and Chester Council.
- Garner, D. 2014. Helsby Hill to Maiden Castle: Prehistoric forts of the Cheshire Ridge, In ed. Saunders, T., Hillforts in the North West and Beyond, Archaeological North West: New Series, 3 (2014), Council for British Archaeology North West, 28-41.
- Garner, D. 2016. Hillforts of the Cheshire Ridge. Investigations undertaken by the Habitats and Hillforts Landscape Partnership Scheme 2009-2012. Oxford: Archaeopress.
- Milln J. Undated. Maiden Castle. Report on Archaeological Recording in association with Battle Area Clearance, National Trust.
- Ormerod, G. 1882. The History of Cheshire, 2nd Ed.
- Taylor, J. 1980-81. Maiden Castle, Bickerton Hill [hillfort excavation summary], Cheshire Archaeol Bull, 7, 34-6.
- Varley, W.J. 1935. Maiden Castle, Bickerton, preliminary excavations 1934, Liverpool Annals Archaeol and Anthrop, 22, 97-110.
- Varley, W.J. 1936. Further excavations at Maiden Castle, Bickerton, 1935, Liverpool Annals Archaeol and Anthrop, 23, 101-112.