HER 590 - St Ann's Hillfort, probably part natural and part terracing for roads.

Scheduled Monument
Traces of a defensive earthwork were formerly visible on St Ann's Hill, once known as Eldebury or Oldbury Hill. Today, a long line of scarp with a ditch at its foot extends along the western crest of the hill. The southern end is terminated above the Dingle and the northern end finishes abruptly with the hillside continuing beyond in such a manner as to suggest that there were never any further artificial works in that direction; the steep slopes becoming naturally defensive in themselves. The summit of the hill is approximately level and assuming the work on the west to have swung round on the same curve to the south-east apex, some 12 acres would have been enclosed, but the course of the work cannot be determined on this side if indeed it ever existed here. St Ann's Hill is a prominent gravel-capped knoll rising out of the Thames Valley. It is tree covered, mutilated on the south side by a large gravel pit (The Dingle) and traversed by a number of old trackways including the Chertsey-Egham coach road. Although a continuous scarping can be traced about the summit of the hill, part of this must be natural and part due to the terracing for tracks and roads. The identification of the supposed bank and ditch on the west side as part of the hill fort is by no means certain and could be an earlier version of the coach road. The site was excavated in 1990 to provide information for management of the monument. Mesolithic worked flints including cores were found. The postulated defences were sectioned and the site was confirmed as a univallate hillfort; a full detailed survey was carried out by English Heritage. In a small trench in the interior 53 Prehistoric features were found, mostly of early to middle Iron Age date, with post-holes indicating three or more building phases.

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Related Records

• SHHER_591
• SHHER_2838
• SHHER_2838
• SHHER_3699
• SHHER_3699
• SHHER_5745
• SHHER_5745

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