Trendle Ring
Trendle Ring (or Trundle Ring) is a late prehistoric earthwork on the Quantock Hills near Bicknoller in Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Monument.[1][2] In 2013 it was added to the Heritage at Risk Register due to vulnerability to plant growth.[3]
| Trendle Ring | |
|---|---|
 Plan of earthworks at Trendle Ring | |
| Location | Bicknoller, Somerset, England |
| Coordinates | 51°08′51″N 3°15′49″W |
| Area | 0.8 hectares (2.0 acres) |
| Built | Iron Age |
| Official name | Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork |
| Designated | 09 April 1976 |
| Reference no. | 1008249 |
  Location of Trendle Ring in Somerset | |
The word trendle means circle, so it is a tautological place name.[4]
The site, which covers 0.8 hectares (2.0 acres),[4] is surrounded by a single rampart with a ditch and has a simple opening on the East, uphill side. The hillside is steep and there are two areas which may have been more level platforms. It is situated on the slope of a hill which rises 130 m above the ring.
Possible interpretations
Both the period of construction and the original purpose of the earthwork are uncertain. It has been described at different times by different authorities as a fort,[5][6] a settlement,[7] a livestock enclosure[8] and a hill-slope enclosure.[9] It may have served different purposes at different times. It has never been excavated and no found artifacts are associated with it.
The size of the 'ramparts' would argue for a defensive purpose, but the only entrance on the uphill side would not. The lack of any water supply would argue against any permanent human occupation and against its use as a livestock enclosure, although two more level areas inside the earthwork have been identified as possible building platforms.[10] Hill-slope enclosures are found in South West England dating from the first and second millennium BC. When excavated, they have sometimes been found to have had settlements inside them, resembling defensible farmsteads,[9] but the extreme steepness of this site and its location halfway up the scarp of the Quantocks make it difficult to assign it a purely practical purpose.
See also
- Plainsfield Camp
- Dowsborough
- List of hillforts and ancient settlements in Somerset
- The Trendle, an ancient earthwork at Cerne Abbas
References
- "Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork, Bicknoller - 1008249 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
- "Trendle Ring hillfort, Bicknoller Hill, Bicknoller". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- "Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork, Bicknoller - West Somerset". Heritage at Risk. English Heritage. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
- A Field Guide to Somerset Archaeology, Lesley and Roy Adkins (1992) ISBN 0-946159-94-7 page 114
- "Cross ridge dyke, Bicknoller Hill, Bicknoller". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
- Historic England. "Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork (1008249)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- OS Map. Ordnance Survey. ISBN 0-319-11216-0.
- 1802 OS Map. Ordnance Survey. 1802.
- Riley, Hazel. The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills. English Heritage. p. 60. ISBN 978-1905624294.
- Riley, Hazel. The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills. English Heritage. p. 62. ISBN 978-1905624294.
Further reading
- The Archaeology of Somerset, Michael Aston and Ian Burrow (Eds) (1982) ISBN 0-86183-028-8