<< Our Photo Pages >> St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles - Misc. Earthwork in England in Surrey

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 25 March 2013  Page Views: 19721

Multi-periodSite Name: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles
Country: England County: Surrey Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Guildford  Nearest Village: Chilworth
Map Ref: TQ027482
Latitude: 51.223765N  Longitude: 0.530709W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles
St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles submitted by Eileen : The sand rings can only be seen now when the vegetation has died back. This is the most easily found circle - the open arms indicate the shape of the circle. (Vote or comment on this photo)
A unique group of sites, spread within a few hundred metres of St Martha's on the Hill church, itself unusual and well worth a visit. The earth circles are enormous, but very shallow earthworks and difficult to see. This makes them virtually unknown to the many visitors to the hill. Eileen Grimshaw and myself are confident we have located them.

There are three circles remaining, another at SU028482. Your only chance of locating any of the earth circles is to visit in winter when the bracken has died down. St Marthas Hill used play host to have a May Day Festival of All Martyrs

There are also intriguing links to a Dragon legend, and one of competing giants that connect it with the with St Catherine's Hill to the south.

The book Three Surrey Churches - A Chapter of English History (by Rev H R Ware & P G Palmer, undated but from circa 1910) has a chapter on St Martha's including the following tantalising references.

"To the east of the hill, on the rising ground of Weston Wood, towards Sherborne Springs, lie huge boulders, foreign to this part of England, relics of a cromlech. Similar remains once existed near Albury Rectory, and a mass of rock in Colyer's Hanger, on the hillside, probably marks the site of a third."

With thanks to Eileen Grimshaw for uncovering this information.

Note: Anyone for dancing at St Martha's Hill, Good Friday is the time...
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St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles
St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles submitted by Eileen : From below - pics taken January 2005 (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles
St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles submitted by Eileen : A Platform Mound just below the wartime pillbox on the east slope (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles
St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles submitted by Eileen : Close up of remains of one sand ring - they used to be five foot high in the Bronze Age - on the south facing slope - all pics 1998 (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles
St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles submitted by Eileen : The Borough Council workmen built a reservoir over one of the sand rings (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
TQ0248 : St Martha's Hill by Colin Smith
by Colin Smith
©2017(licence)
TQ0248 : View from St Martha's Hill by N Chadwick
by N Chadwick
©2013(licence)
TQ0248 : St Martha's Reservoir by N Chadwick
by N Chadwick
©2010(licence)
TQ0248 : Trees on St Martha's Hill, at sunset by Stefan Czapski
by Stefan Czapski
©2014(licence)
TQ0248 : Conifers on St Martha's Hill by N Chadwick
by N Chadwick
©2010(licence)

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 687m NW 304° Tyting Farm Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (TQ02124857)
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"St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles" | Login/Create an Account | 10 News and Comments
  
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The Earthworks on St. Martha’s Hill by Ivor Winton by Andy B on Wednesday, 10 August 2022
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The Earthworks on St. Martha’s Hill by Ivor Winton
Originally published in Caerdroia 23 (1990), p.14-18

High on the list of turf labyrinth sites that receive more obeisance than scrutiny is St. Martha’s Hill, an abrupt conical hill some three kilometres south of Guildford, Surrey. Local histories and guidebooks will direct you to the building perched on its summit, St. Martha’s Chapel, once a parish church despite its name. What concerns us here lies downslope from the church and attracts less attention - several earth circles, overgrown and partially obliterated, reputed to be the vestiges of a turf labyrinth. A simple question: is this reputation deserved?

https://labyrinthos.net/C23%20St%20Marthas%20Hill.pdf

There are more archive articles from Caerdroia - the Journal of Mazes & Labyrinths here
https://labyrinthos.net/caerdroiaarchive.html

and find out more about Labyrinthos here
https://www.labyrinthos.net/digitaldownload.html
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St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles - tree clumps or planting rings (probably) by Andy B on Monday, 19 March 2018
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Surrey HER
Ref No:300, SHHER_300
Site Name: Probable Plantation Rings or "Earth Circles", St Martha
Grid Reference: 502900 148200
Description:
Five earth-rings or ring-ditches varying from 72' to 105' in diameter, consisting of bank and external ditch with diameter of approx 18". These features are almost certainly old plantation rings; the finding of early material (there are a number of findspots of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age implements in the area) is not surprising, these sandy uplands having been occupied since Mesolithic times. Scheduled Monument.

http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/collections/getrecord/SHHER_300

"...they are obviously the steads of former tree-clumps of eighteenth or even early nineteenth-century date, though this has not stopped a steady stream of authors reiterating Wood’s prehistoric religious monument interpretation... "

https://surreymedieval.wordpress.com/work/st-marthas-on-the-hill/the-martyrial-origin-of-st-martha-on-the-hill-presentation-16th-march-2013/
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Re: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles by enjaytom on Friday, 29 March 2013
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Stane Street commences in Chichester, proceeds north-east in increments of 5.64 kilometres, 1+1+3 = 5 megalithic leagues to Pulborough, changes direction towards Rowhook for 3 megalithic leagues. At Rowhook it forks. The left fork is 3 megalithic leagues (3x5.64km= 17km) to St Martha's on the Hill earth circles. The earth circles site is at the left fork terminus of Stane Street, an important Neolithic site identified at last. The right fork from Rowhook heads to Brockham close to Dorking, again 17km length. See page 213 of my "Stonehenge Sacred Symbolism" 2011, an eBook title. This is a very significant Neolithic site and deserves very careful E-H preservation treatment. I will gladly assist in any way possible, Neil L. Thomas. 29/03/2013
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Re: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles by Andy B on Monday, 25 March 2013
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"On the southern side of St. Martha's Hill, are two distinct but small circles; each formed by a single bank and ditch: one of them is about 30 yards in diameter; the other, 28 yards. Whether these circles were ever connected with Druidical rites, or not, must remain questionable. They have not hitherto been noticed in any published work; and the same may be stated with respect to a large Barrow, enveloped in foliage, and obscured by large trees growing upon it, which is situated about three-quarters of a mile from the hill, in the approach from Guildford."
Brayley, E. W., Topographical History of Surrey, Vol. V, 1850
[see Tyting Farm Barrow in nearby sites list]

"A custom, the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of time, prevails in the neighbourhood of Guildford of making a pilgrimage to St. Martha's (or Martyr's) Hill on Good Friday. Thither from all the countryside youths and maidens, old folks and children, betake themselves, and gathered together on one of the most beautiful spots in
Surrey, in full sight of an old Norman church which crowns the green summit of the hill, beguile the time with music and dancing. Whatever the origin of this pilgrimage to St Martha's, it is apparently one that commends itself to the taste of the present generation, and is not likely to die out with the lapse of years, but to increase in popular estimation as long as the green hill lasts to attract the worshippers of natural beauty, or to furnish the mere votaries of pleasure with the excuse and the opportunity for a pleasant holiday."

Thistleton Dyer, British Popular Customs, 1876, p.156, quoting The Times of April 18, 1870.

Source: Surrey Archaeology vol 55, 1954 by Wood, which also has a diagram showing five earth circles found by the author
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Re: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles by JohnLindsay on Monday, 25 March 2013
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Then, walking to Guildford, there is the mount of the castle, then there is the road called The Mount, to the top of the Hog's Back, whereupon, there is what looks to me like a cursus, in that there is a long ditch, with a mound, then a space for sixteen knights to ride abreast (according to an old text) then a ditch then a mound, and this continues until the modern road from Guildford comes up the hill to be the A31. This is the old road to Franham. Margary has a couple of pages on it in SyAc but he is fixated with Roman roads. Napper has an artilce, something like 1895 and he calls them ancient British trackways. The OS map has trackway if I remember right.

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Re: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles by JohnLindsay on Monday, 25 March 2013
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Given Good Friday is approaching, the dancing time at St.Martha's, there is a detailed article in SyAc by Wood, in 1954, in turn quoting lasham of 1895 about the good friday festivities here, and the phallic nature.
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Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories by Andy B on Friday, 22 April 2011
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Merrow Downs, just to the north of here were the fictional setting for two of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, set in Neolithic times: "How the First Letter was Written" and "How the Alphabet was Made".

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2781
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Re: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles by kric on Monday, 21 September 2009
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update: Tupper actually places these circles "a mile [away from] ... St Martha's", heading north to Woking: possibly the earth works were in fact the inspiration for his tree circles, but who knows?
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Re: St Martha's on the Hill Earth Circles by kric on Sunday, 13 September 2009
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W H Chouler writing in 1959 'Tales of Old Surrey', calls these earthworks "old Druidical Yew circles" - quoting Tupper [1858]. It looks as if the yews are long gone?

kr
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