This is Findon Village — these Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

A WALK WITH H. S. TOMS

A shepherd boy guarding his sheep grazing on an escarpment of Cissbury Ring in 1927.

Copyright Valerie Martin 2001.

 Sketched in 1924 by artist unknown.

Here is a novel photograph of the 1920s...

A meeting of the Worthing Archaeological Society at Cissbury Ring in October 1924.

 

In 1924, the National Trust appealed for £1,000. so it could buy for the public the 78 acres of land comprising Cissbury Ring.   The cost of the Iron Age hill fort site (part of the Warren Estate) was £2,000.  

 A National Trust spokesman is reputed to have said in 1924.....

"Unless the balance is forthcoming in the immediate future there is a possibility that Cissbury Ring may be lost forever".

.Do you know what connection the Daily Express newspaper with Cissbury Ring?   

Answer:  Cissbury Ring was purchased in 1925 following a national appear via the Daily Express.

 H. S. Toms the curator of Brighton Museum made a long study of Cissbury Ring which he finally published in 1927.  He also put pen to paper and wrote a descriptive walk on Cissbury Ring and it is still interesting to follow in his footsteps today —

 

Setting out from Worthing Station, Cissbury may be reached by two routes: (1) Take the Findon bus from Worthing and go as far as the Gun Inn Findon.  Alighting here will entail a walk eastwards.

Not quite a mile east of the Gun Inn, one gets past Nepcote Plantation, and then, across the valley to the right, the finest view of Cissbury Hill is obtained.

On reaching the pond* the visitor should take the footpath leading south up to Cissbury and ignore the old hollow ways from the pond up the hill to the south-east.  About three hundred yards from the pond, the footpath cuts through the outer bank, or rampart, of the hill-fort, leads along the ditch, and then up and though a gap in the uppermost or main rampart.  Probably this entrance (near "13" on plan) is not original but of much later date than the fort.

* This is the dew-pond which was finally destroyed by the army and their vehicles during the Second World War.

Having got inside the main rampart, turn to the left and follow the defensive lines eastwards.   Naturally, during the course of ages, both the outer and inner ramparts have become much lowered and spread by natural denudation.  The same causes have also very largely filled up the ditches between the ramparts.

As one approaches the ridge to the east, it will be noticed that (at "2" on plan) the outer rampart terminates abruptly, and that the ditch from "2" to "E" has been widened by a series of broad scoops.  The V-shaped notch in the main rampart at "E" marks an original entrance to the fort.  Access from the outside was across a narrow ridge, or causeway, through which the ditches were not cut. 

 

 A scene that has hardly altered over the years.  The eastern entrance to Cissbury Ring.....   This photograph was taken in 1927 and interestingly shows a fence running through the gap in the ramparts.

 

The same view in August 2001.

 

And then the cows walked through.

On the southern side of the causeway the same features are observed.  Namely, that the outer rampart ends abruptly some sixty yards away (at "3") and that the ditch has been widened by a scooping process.  One also sees that the main rampart, opposite these scoops on each side of the entrance, has been considerably heightened as compared with that portion traversed since entering the fort.

Continuing along the south-eastern main rampart, the southern entrance is reached at "S", about 600 yards distant.  Here the main rampart terminals, on each side of the entrance, have been made into prominent mounds.  Here also the outer rampart ceases at some distance from the causeway, and the ditch on either side of the latter has been widened and deepened.

Still keeping to the main rampart, and walking west, about a hundred good paces brings the visitor to a point where the western area of the fort (shaded with horizontal lines on plan) is seen to be covered with saucer-shaped and deeper depressions.  These mark the filled-in shafts of ancient flint mines.  Standing on the rampart near "7" and looking seawards, similar depressions may be observed extending outside the fort for some distance along a line drawn south-east, between "7" and "S".  Excavations have proved that the latter line of flint mines extends under the entrenchment  on which the visitor is standing, and that the fort was constructed long after the flint-mining industry had ceased.

A comparison of Then and Now.  The south-east defences of Cissbury Ring in 1927.  The outer rampart is on the left.  On the right is the eastern mound of the southern entrance.

 

 

The same scene in August 2001, seventy-four years later. The fir trees of the South Wood have gone and have been replaced with deciduous trees.

 

Leaving the rampart, and traversing the western (shaded) interior of the fort, it will be seen that several of the mine shafts have heaps of chalk, not covered with grass, by their sides.  These are the heaps which were removed during examination of some of the mines about 50 years ago, when hundreds of broken, imperfect, or badly-made flint implements (which had been cast aside by the miners as unworthy of removal), were recovered from the material filling the shafts.

The date of the mining industry has in late years caused considerable discussion; but there can be no doubt that it belongs to a period not long prior to the first introduction of metal tools to these islands, some four or five thousand years ago.

If the reader will trouble to study the evidence recorded in the 1926 volume of the "Sussex Archaeological Collections", it will be found that the facts at present revealed all point to the conclusion that the hill-fort was first constructed at some time during the Roman occupation; and that, long after its defensive lines had suffered denudation, it was refortified by the removal of portions of the outer rampart on each side of the two entrances — this material (together with soils scooped from the adjacent ditch) having been piled on to the main rampart terminals which border the entrance.

The period of this reconstruction is problematical; but it can hardly have been earlier than the fierce struggles of the **Romano-Britons against the Saxon invaders about the fifth century A.D.

**Later investigations were to conflict with this statement.

 

H. S. Toms, died in 1940.

From Bost Hill across to Cissbury Ring pre 1929.

 

Cissbury Ring pre 1933

 

An old photograph of Cissbury Ring.....date unsure....  perhaps 1930s?

Here's the same scene I've tried to capture from the same spot as the original photographer.....

The same view in August 2004

 

 Back in 1929, a dew-pond on Cissbury Ring amused visitors by boasting a spoof notice which stated;

Mixed bathing in the dew-pond is permitted at all times except when dried up and on Sundays.

 

Continue if you would like to read about The Battle of Cissbury.

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