Two thousand years separate the sweat of these old flint miners from the construction of the mighty Iron Age Fort at Cissbury as a tribal headquarters and refuge in times of danger. An amazing estimate of some 60,000 tons of chalk was excavated from the ditch area during the Iron Age to build the fine ramparts we see today. Even they are a shadow of the former great earthwork that could have employed 200 men and taken two years to complete. It was awesome and spectacular in its day, surmounted by an impressive mile-long defence wall of massive hewn timbers enclosing the area. There were originally between 8,000 - 12,000 of these giant lumber supports surrounding Cissbury, each about 15 ft. high. A construction of no mean feat at that time.

By 50 BC the Cissbury Camp appears to have gone out of use as a fortress and was abandoned to the wind and rain. It took the Romans to see the potential of the downland and they began to cultivate considerable tracts of land within the ramparts. It was possibly administered and occupied as a military station. Maybe a unit of some long forgotten legion was quartered on the site looking out to sea.

The Romano-British presence eventually diminished on Cissbury and the landscape reverted back to a deserted open space. Around a century later, Saxon pirates landed and stormed up the valley frightening the local native tribes. The hordes trekked out in small pioneering groups to take by force any likely spot where they settled down and commenced farming. Legend says that Cissa, the early Saxon leader, resided at Cissbury.   I wonder?

Nearer to our own time, during Elizabethan days, an old chart records the name of Old Bury relating to Cissbury Ring. This title appears to have remained until the 19th century when Easter festivals were conducted there. It is assumed that the villagers of Findon made their way to the celebrations to partake in the rejoicing. The function appears to have been very emotive and Kiss in the Ring was enacted as the young local fraternity danced with high spirited gaiety in a circle, singing as they went —

It was not uncommon as proceedings drew to a close later in the day, for the young people to disperse under cover of darkness into the surrounding fields and scrub. Far too many village Easter infants are said to have been born nine months later, as a result of these high spirited capers on The Bury above Findon at Eastertide.     The writer and naturalist, W. H. Hudson (1841-1922), resided in Worthing and is reputed to have said that illegitimate babies were "as plentiful as blackberries" in the villages of the South Downs.    (William Henry Hudson was a kind of wandering Gilbert White).

There may be treasure beneath Cissbury Ring. It was at one time believed that an ancient civilisation had concealed their wealth of gold in the hillside.

A story tells of some like-minded men from the nearby Worthing area in the 1860s having discovered the entrance to a two-mile long legendary tunnel leading from Offington Hall (now demolished) to Cissbury Ring (a little over two miles away.  The tunnel was rather fascinatingly discovered behind panelling in the library of the house, leading via the cellars to a vast treasure. 

The tunnel is said to date back to 3,500 BC according to carbon dating but how true this is, I do not know.

The owner of the Hall offered to finance an expeditionary force and hand over half the treasure to anyone who would clear out the tunnel.  The long passage was sealed with debris and they sweated and toiled eager to clear the blocked way with their picks and spades. They imagined the reward awaiting them, and busily worked in their underground cave in anticipation of the wealth that would be theirs. How long they burrowed away in the hillside is not known, but it must have been for some considerable time.

The tale ends abruptly when the treasure seekers heard hissing. They were faced with serpents slithering towards them at the end of the tunnel. Fearing their venomous bite the men are said to have quickly retreated and never dared to return to recover the treasure in the hillside.

Fairies are also said to dance on Cissbury Ring at midnight on Midsummer's Eve — if I can ever authenticate the tale it will be another story.

Continue if you would like to read about the The Cissbury Beakers.

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This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.