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no data Internal Links: External Links: Ambresbury Banks submitted by Thorgrim
Hillfort in Essex
Iron Age plateau fort in Epping Forest at TL 438004. Easily accessible from the Epping Road opposite the lane to Upshire. Situated on a ridge overlooking the Lea Valley, it has its own stream which rises inside the fort of 4.5 hectares. Impressive banks and ditch remain. Loughton Camp is similar and also in Epping Forest.
Possibly re-used by Ambrosius Aurelianus (the real King Arthur) who fortified many sites to combat the encroaching Saxons. Ambresbury means Ambrosius' fort as does Amesbury near Stonehenge.
Ambresbury Banks submitted by Thorgrim The original entrance had a double wooden gate supported on foundations of puddingstone. One of a chain of Iron Age hillforts to defend the lands of the Trinovantes (Essex) from that of the Catuvellauni (Herts). In 7AD, Cunobelin (Shakespeare's Cymbeline) over ran the Trinovantes and moved his capital from what is now St Albans to Colchester (Colchester is the castle of Old King Cole!). When t
Ambresbury Banks submitted by Thorgrim The ditch has long silted up, but is still a formidable obstacle and hold water in winter. Originally 30ft wide and 10ft deep.
Ambresbury Banks submitted by Thorgrim The banks still rise to an impressive height and enclose an area of 12 acres complete with its own spring.
Ambresbury Banks submitted by Thorgrim Iron Age cattle have been re-introduced to Epping Forest near Ambresbury Banks hillfort in a control zone on Sunshine Plain.
Re: Ambresbury Banks (Score: 1) by Gildas on Sunday, 07 January 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
As a newcomer to the Megalithic Portal, I hesitate to criticise Thorgrim's contributions (though Andy tells me Thorgrim is no longer around), but I think he has repeated a couple of common fallacies here :
1. Ambrosius Aurelianus, whose resistance to the English appears to have begun around 460, may have been a contemporary of Arthur (whoever HE was), but probably predated him by a generation. Badon is dated around 495, when Ambrosius would have been an old man, and if he died in around 520, the date for Arthur's death given in the Cambrian annals, he would have been very old indeed.
2. Old King Cole was probably Coel Hen, who ruled a northern kingdom around the turn of the 5th century - as John Morris says, "Medieval fantasy turned him into Old King Cole, and on the strength of the name transferred him to Colchester".
"Colchester" comes from the Saxon "Colne caester" (the fortress of Colonia).
See "A history of the British Isles from 350 to 650" - John Morris - ISBN 1 85799 286 5 and also the Wikipedia entry under "Colchester"
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