NHER 1881 (Monument record) - Site of undated tower, Camping Hill

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Summary

The site of a tower, possibly a lighthouse. It is marked as being in ruins on a map of 1797 and was apparently still visible in the 19th century, but no trace of it remains today.

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Location

Map sheet TF94SE
Civil Parish STIFFKEY, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Map

Marked on 1883 6 inch Ordnance Survey map as 'supposed site of Danish camp' but this is purely from a misunderstanding of the name, which refers to the game of camping.
(S1) marks a ruined tower, and shows the road running on the northwest side of the hill. Miss F. A. Kirk said the tower ruins were visible in 1885 to 90 (NCM card).

Visited by E. Rose (NAU), 24 August 1977.
No trace of the tower in a paddock. Nor of the road course in a cornfield. Some lumps of flint in the grass on site of tower. P. L. K. Schwabe showed me a copy of a map of 1600 on which it is marked as Bacon property and called the 'Hill of Health; the same name as a tumulus on Bacon lands at Culford in Suffolk! An elderly man had told him that he remembered the tower base standing 90cm (3 feet) high, circular, brick and flint. Schwabe has a Neolithic axe roughout found here, grey flint, about 20cm by 12.7cm (8 inches by 5 inches), broken and with flaw. (Seen by E. Rose, 25 August 1977).
E. Rose (NAU).

Woodward (correspondence III page 76) 1829 (S2) saw the tower; like a round church tower; suggests a lighthouse.
E. Rose (NAU).

  • --- Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Miscellaneous. Stiffkey.
  • --- Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
  • --- Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TF 94 SE 3.
  • <S1> Publication: Faden, W. and Barringer, J. C. 1989. Faden's Map of Norfolk in 1797.
  • <S2> Serial: Woodward. 1829. Correspondence. Vol III. p 76.
  • FLAKED AXEHEAD (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)

Related NHER Records (0)

Record last edited

Feb 18 2021 8:46AM

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