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<< Our Photo Pages >> Hatfield Forest - Ancient Village or Settlement in England in Essex

Submitted by Thorgrim on Sunday, 14 December 2003  Page Views: 15444

Multi-periodSite Name: Hatfield Forest Alternative Name: Portingbury Hills, Portingbury Rings
Country: England County: Essex Type: Ancient Village or Settlement

Map Ref: TL532204  Landranger Map Number: 167
Latitude: 51.861156N  Longitude: 0.223377E
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
 4 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.
 4 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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Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Portingbury Hills in Hatfield Forest is an Iron Age farmstead. It consists of a rectangular mound measuring 100 by 70ft surrounded by a strong ditch up to 35ft wide. Another mound - sausage shaped runs up to it. The ditch of this mound is less well defined. Two zigzag banks to the east form an incomplete enclosure with the Sherborne Brook. Excavated in 1964, the ditch is V-shaped and was origi... (Vote or comment on this photo)
In Hatfield Forest and variously called Portingbury Hills and Portingbury Rings, this site is an Iron Age farmstead. It consists of a rectangular mound measuring 100 by 70ft surrounded by a strong ditch up to 35ft wide.

Another mound - sausage shaped runs up to it. The ditch of this mound is less well defined. Two zigzag banks to the east form an incomplete enclosure with the Sherborne Brook.

Excavated in 1964, the ditch is V-shaped and was originally 6ft deep. Finds dated to the Iron Age include a small flint blade, four potsherds, animal bones, burnt flint and charcoal. Best seen in winter when the vegetation is lower and the ditches full of water. Easy to find from Post 11 of the NT's Nature Trail. Walk down the path into Beggar's Hall Coppice and very soon you will cross the first banks. Very wet area so good boots are a must
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Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Just a few seconds after the sun cleared the skyline it was too bright to look at and I needed to block it with foliage. Mist was rising from the fields and turned to flame as the sun burst through. No tweaking required when Nature paints from her best pallette. As one of the adjudicators - I cannot enter the competition, but I just wanted to share my solstice with you. (8 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Hatfield Forest is my special place. This photograph was taken just before the solstice sunrise. Mist was curling up from the lake and the first birds were stirring. The whole scene became more like a steamy rain forest jungle as the light strengthened. As I walked back through the forest, the cattle were among the trees and their great bodies loomed out of the shadows. Across the open plain... (3 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Middle-earth Gallery Lothlorien Fellowship of the Ring Book Two Chapter VI My personal Sacred Grove. We have no megaliths in Essex, but we do have some wonderful trees! (5 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Thorgrim in his Sacred Grove Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." (5 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Hatfield Forest, Essex
Hatfield Forest, Essex submitted by Thorgrim : The cold winter sun riding high in the tree has not yet begun to burn off the mist of morning. (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Hatfield Forest, Essex
Hatfield Forest, Essex submitted by Thorgrim : Yippee! The National Trust has chosen my photograph for its official Hatfield Forest Christmas card. Image shown here is only a low resolution version of course. That makes two this year as the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign chose another - see here (9 comments)

Hatfield Forest, Essex
Hatfield Forest, Essex submitted by Thorgrim : Early morning with fog and frost. Landscape photographs don't always have to be taken in the horizontal "landscape" format. You don't always have to have the sun behind you - shooting into the light can be very effective. You don't have to always wait for blue skies and a sunny day. You don't have to leave your camera at home during the winter months. Get out there and capture the fleeting ... (2 comments)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Two moons on the lake in Hatfield Forest. Midnight and all is quiet except for the bark of a fox and the breathing of nearby cattle.

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Even in the flatlands of Essex with no moors, no mountains and no megaliths - the Solstice sunrise is still special. (1 comment)

Hatfield Forest Lake
Hatfield Forest Lake submitted by Thorgrim : We do have some lovely lakes "dahn souf" in Essex - if only artificial ones and reservoirs (9 comments)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Treebeard "Ent the earthborn, old as mountains" Hrooom - hrum - let's not be hasty, "To land of gloom with tramp of doom, With roll of drum, we come, we come To Isengard with doom we come!" The Two Towers Book Three Chapter IV (5 comments)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : Mirkwood. The Hobbit. Chapter VIII "As their eyes became used to the dimness they could see a little way to either side in a sort of darkened green glimmer."

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : One for Hamish! Even a cow can be dangerous when she is with her calf. Like all good mums, she'll protect her young'un (1 comment)

Hatfield Forest
Hatfield Forest submitted by Thorgrim : An Iron Age settlement (Portingbury) once existed in what is now Hatfield Forest. A much bigger Iron Age village has been excavated at Stansted Airport. This replica Iron Age house was built by local volunteers for children. It may not win any prizes for authenticity, but all credit to the Forest's staff for building it and giving local children a link to their past. Note the werewolf on guar...

Hatfield Forest Puddingstones
Hatfield Forest Puddingstones submitted by Thorgrim : Third of the three puddingstones rescued from the flooded valley. Two have now been moved again to stand outside the Shell House.

Hatfield Forest Puddingstones
Hatfield Forest Puddingstones submitted by Thorgrim : Second of the three puddingstones rescued from the flooded valley

Hatfield Forest Puddingstones
Hatfield Forest Puddingstones submitted by Thorgrim : One of three puddingstones by the lakeside in Hatfield Forest. TL 541198. They were moved when the Old Woman's Weaver was dammed to form the lake. It is claimed that the stones were part of an alignment from Hatfield to Wandlebury via the Newport Leper Stone, Mutlow and Littlebury. (see Sacred Stones of Essex)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 1.1km SE 126° Hatfield Forest Puddingstones* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL541198)
 3.0km ENE 76° Stansted Airport Stone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL561212)
 3.5km NW 316° Birchanger* Early Christian Sculptured Stone (TL507228)
 4.3km WNW 282° Glasscock Stone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL4894821169)
 4.7km WSW 238° Wallbury Camp* Hillfort (TL493178)
 6.8km N 355° Ugley Green Puddingstone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL5242327126)
 9.0km NE 50° Tilty Puddingstone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL599264)
 10.7km SSW 212° Harlow Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (TL478112)
 10.7km SSW 213° Harlow Cursus Cursus (TL477112)
 10.7km SSW 212° Matching Cursus Cursus (TL47791113)
 11.0km W 277° Caley Wood Misc. Earthwork (TL422215)
 11.5km SSE 158° Beauchamp Roding Puddingstone* Marker Stone (TL578098)
 11.7km S 184° High Laver Puddingstone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL527087)
 11.8km N 2° Widdington Puddingstone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL532322)
 12.2km S 191° Magdalen Laver Puddingstone* Marker Stone (TL513083)
 13.0km NNW 334° Clavering Castle* Misc. Earthwork (TL471319)
 13.0km N 10° Debden Pudding Stone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL550333)
 13.1km N 357° Newport Puddingstone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL521335)
 13.2km N 353° Wicken Bonhunt Puddingstone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL511334)
 14.3km NW 318° Brent Pelham* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL433307)
 14.3km W 280° Standon Puddingstone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (TL390224)
 14.5km E 96° Felsted Misc. Earthwork (TL677193)
 14.5km N 357° Leper Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (TL520349)
 14.8km SSW 201° Canes Puddingstone Marker Stone (TL483064)
 14.9km NNW 343° Arkesden Puddingstones* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TL485345)
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"Hatfield Forest" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Complex of Earthworks at Wandlebury and Hatfield Forest from the Third Millenium BC by Andy B on Sunday, 10 February 2013
(User Info | Send a Message)
An Astrological Complex of Earthworks at Wandlebury and Hatfield Forest from the Third Millenium BC by Christian and Barbara Joy O'Brien

This treatise is the record of five years of field-work and computation carried out over the whole of East Anglia and its border areas to the west. As a study of possible astronomical alignments of great antiquity, marked on the ground by monoliths and earthen mounds, it has had to use many disciplines - archaeology, astronomy, geology, mathematics, geodesy and tertiary surveying. As no man is master of all these, least of all the author, frequent mistakes have been made.

And yet the original working hypothesis has survived all vicissitudes, and has become more firmly grounded as successive mistakes have been corrected In the absence of a written record, there can be no proof that the, admittedly remarkable, claims put forward, here, are not a mirage of purely random events. But great care has been taken that each step should be supported by a calculated, negligible probability of randomness. On my handling of this factor, must rest the acceptability, or otherwise, of the conclusions reached - Christian O'Brien.

Paid Download (£2.50)
http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/wanddownload.php

Also free copy of the article from the Sunday Times 1978
In the Gogmagog Hills, just four miles south-east of Cambridge there stands an ancient and colossal earthworks called Wandlebury Fort. Shrouded in mystery and now shaded by a canopy of trees, this most eerie place is a popular summer-time picnic area. Few people munching their sandwiches on a balmy afternoon pause to wonder why a group of men toiled countless years ago to create the great mound; fewer still know of the old legend.

http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/wandlebury.php

[Included on site page as this is an important piece of social history about the alternative study of this site]
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Re: Hatfield Forest by Anonymous on Tuesday, 24 March 2009
I have known the forest since 1953 [6 yearsold]. A truly enchanting place. Sadly when i visited last year many things had changed.Most were for the good as it was needed to cope with visiter numbers, agreat well done to the management who have achieved this. I was sad to see the lake was different ,Lack of weed and not so much reed bed and looked as it had been dredged. Also i was very sad that what was once a haven of peace was now badley affected by Stansted Airport. The pics by Thirgrim very good and brought back many memories. To the managment of hatfield Forest you have done a fantastic job over the years of which you should be proud of. Thank you.
Dave
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Re: Hatfield Forest by Anonymous on Saturday, 21 April 2007
Hi Thorgrim. Great pics. I like Hatfield Forest. Have been there three times now. Only live a few miles away in the Notleys. Have taken some pics myself. It is a truly magical place. I love the ancient forest lands and stones of this land. I moved here a few years ago from America. I am a descendant of Norman, Irish, and Anglo-Saxon families but his is my home now....full circle.Thanks for sharing.
-Chris
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