This website created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

Map reference TQ139080

Two thousand years separate the sweat of the old flint miners from the construction of the mighty Iron Age Fort at Cissbury, map reference TQ140080.

In the long chain of ancient earthworks fortifying the hill tops of the south coast of England from Kent to Dorset, Cissbury stands out as second only to Maiden Castle in fame and magnitude and is one of Britain's greatest hill forts. Its highest point is 602 feet above sea level and during my walks on ramparts I have a splendid view of the coast from Beachy Head to the Isle of Wight. It is said that the Purbeck Hills in Dorset can be seen on a fine day.

The good state of preservation of Cissbury indicates that it was constructed in the late Iron Age, confirmed by the cultural finds. It is believed that it was built as a tribal headquarters and refuge in times of danger.  The huge size of the enclosure of 65 acres, excluding the earthworks, indicates a great population on the fertile land in the vicinity. It is 82 acres including the earthworks.   The inner bank is over a mile to walk around.  It seems that the people in the Findon area around 400-250 B.C. thought that they required protection against marauding Saxon hordes and this could have been their tribal capital.

The Iron Age engineers of the fortifications certainly were not novices and drew upon unusually large resources of manpower and knew their stuff in building. They understood the magnitude of the work they were undertaking and their purpose was to accommodate the population and flocks and herds of livestock of the day.   Construction began before 300 B.C. in the form of a ditch and bank with timber to present a raised wooden wall to any attacker.

The designers selected a suitable local contour and surveyed it. There appears to have been no problem with a water supply. The water table in the days of Cissbury being fortified must have been very much higher than it is now to enable the ancient people to inhabit the hillside. Springs may have existed, and surely must have, but there is now no trace.

The embankment was ultimately raised regardless of the pre-existing Neolithic flint mines, some of which are inside, some outside, and others directly underneath the rampart or ditch.

Two entrances were designed for access, each with a causeway to accommodate wheeled traffic. One headed to the east and another to the south-west.

An amazing estimate of some 60,000 tons of chalk, earth and boulders was excavated from the ditch area to form the fine ramparts we see today. Even they are a shadow of the former great earthwork. To give an idea of the magnitude of the work involved, the project could have employed two hundred men and taken two years to complete. However, depending on the size of the workforce, the fort of Cissbury could have been completed within a few months or it could have been years. No one will now ever know.  The tools they utilised for the project were picks constructed from antlers, wooden spades and animal shoulder blades were used as shovels.

The fort was awesome and spectacular in its day, surmounted by an forbidding 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, as shown in my above diagram. A construction of no mean feat.

When work was completed on the fort it must have made a startling impression on anyone seeing it for the first time.    Not only because of its size but because of the brilliant whiteness of so much exposed chalk.

No evidence has come to light to prove that the fort was ever occupied militarily and it does not appear to have endured a siege, or provided a scene for any battle. Although pits have been discovered with an arsenal of abandoned sling stones still awaiting use.

When not required for defence purposes, the rich soil inside the ramparts was sensibly utilised for agriculture. There are clearly defined lynchets (mounds of earth indicating the edges of small fields). There are the bases of mud walls for possible dwellings or barns.

At some point between 50 BC and 50 AD the Cissbury Camp appears to have completely 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.  Their method of cultivation led over a period to a build-up of soil at the edges of their fields and the characteristic pattern of ridges can still be seen. It is believed that it was administered and occupied as a military station and I find it easy to imagine some long forgotten legion quartered on the site looking out to sea.

Following the withdrawal of the Roman army from this shore around 500 AD, the ramparts were re-enforced but whether by the Saxons or as a defence against them is questionable.

Continue if you would like to read about the Cissbury Moneyers on the Ring above Findon.

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