<< Our Photo Pages >> The Berth - Hillfort in England in Shropshire
Submitted by VirtHist on Friday, 08 October 2004 Page Views: 37417
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: The BerthCountry: England County: Shropshire Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Shrewsbury Nearest Village: Marton
Map Ref: SJ430236 Landranger Map Number: 126
Latitude: 52.806923N Longitude: 2.847004W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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This is a fascinating and undiscovered mid-Iron Age hillfort hidden away from gaze in the privately owned farmland of the North Shropshire countryside of England. Its magnificent presence was once reflected in the waters of marsh and mere but now it stands, a shadow of its former self, in pasture land, looking like nothing more than a tree covered hill.
Unless you know the farmers - as we do - you'll never see it up close and personal, which is one of the reasons behind presenting it here and showing you both photographic and reconstructed images of how it might have looked in 300 BC.
For an historic site that has been said to be the Welsh king, Cynddylan's, Llys Pengwern (capitol of the kingdom of Pengwern) and even the burial ground for one of the historical contender for Arthur, there is very little known about it and no future archaeology planned for it.
The Berth is very unusual in that it isn't actually on a hill as such, not in the traditional sense of the word and not like most of the other 50 or so hillforts in Shropshire.
The site is, in fact, two enclosures joined by a causeway. It's still unknown as to what the smaller, Outer Enclosure was. Was it the original camp, a burial or religious site or an animal enclosure? No one knows. It's almost the shape of a Bronze Age burial 'Pond Burrow' tumuli. It's hardly a 'hill fort' as its inner enclosure is almost flat but, then again, the Berth is hardly a hill fort, more of a 'mound fort'! Let's hope we find out one day.
The Berth - and the west and northwest Midlands region of what is now England - was once occupied by the Cornovii tribe. (These shouldn't be confused with the Cornovii of what is now northern Scotland or the Cornovii of the southwest who gave their name to the modern county of Cornwall). The name is thought to derive from Corno, meaning "the horn". This has been suggested to be because of the horn shaped Wirral Peninsular in the region’s north. My own theory is that it could be to do with either the Celtic sacred animal of the bull or because they were followers of the horned god, Cernunnos.
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