NHER 1910 (Monument record) - Bloodgate Hill Iron Age Hillfort

Site of destroyed hill fort. Ring ditch within.

March 1951. Scheduled.
Short Description of Monument and its condition:
"A great ditch and rampart enclosing a circular area of 5 of 6 acres. The rampart is still about 5ft high, but is being annually reduced by ploughing.
Intact but as the whole field in which it stands is arable, its outlines are becoming blurred and the slope of the vallum is being gradually reduced. Photograph attached, but it gives little idea of the appearance of the monument, of which the scale is such that only an air photograph taken when the sun was low but bright, and the ground bare or in short stubble, would shrow it clearly.
October 1954."
Information from Ancient Monuments Form (S2).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
H. Mellor (HES), 20 June 2018.

1973. Geophysical survey.
Two Iron Age sherds found.
See details, schedule and notes in file.
See photographs (S10) and plan? (S11) for further details.
See also slides (S12), (S13), (S14).
See also S18.
E. Rose (NAU) 12 November 1990.

19 July 1996. NLA aerial photography.
Bank and ditch of hillfort visible in crop, as is ring ditch.
S. Horlock (NLA) 1 May 2001.

April 2001. Fieldwalking.
Survey of enclosure and areas to west and east (site extended).
Prehistoric flints.
Iron Age, Roman, medieval and post medieval sherds.
See notes and sketch plan in file.
See also (S25).
A. Rogerson (NLA) 10 June 2001.

September 2003. Geophysical Survey and Excavation.
Prior to the excavation air photography and geophysical survey were employed. The air photographs indicated the presence of a large ring-ditch within the hillfort enclosure. The geophysical survey revealed further details of the hillfort including its probable entrances, the ring-ditch (with possible entrance and internal features) and adjoining ditches. Excavation showed that the hillfort ditch had been recut some time after its initial construction. The bank (slighted in 1827) appeared to survive as a low bank of soil. The central ring-ditch was of a distinctive V-shape, about 3m deep, with evidence for an internal bank. Iron Age pottery through its fills suggested a date for construction, although its function remains unclear. A chalky spread behind the line of the former bank was also recorded (representing the slighting of the bank in 1827) which sealed earlier soils. A small pit beneath these soils produced Iron Age pottery and flints. Environmental evidence was slight but probably indicated an open environment locally.
See published article (S34) and reports (S26) and (S27) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S31).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2005.84).
A. Cattermole (NLA) 3 September 2004. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 5 May 2019.

Winter 2003-2004. Metal detecting.
Survey undertaken for the Norfolk Archaeological Trust within and to east and west of enclosure.
Seven Roman, one medieval and three post medieval coins.

Before 26 May 2004. Chance find.
One sherd glazed Grimston ware.
See description in file.
E. Darch (NLA) 8 June 2006.

8 June 2013. Site Visit by the Norfolk Monument Protection Programme.
The site is generally in very good condition, with good grass cover and little or no thistles or nettles. There is some poaching on the eastern side of the main enclosure bank which may require reseeding. Rabbits are clearly present on the site but the damage is minimal.
K. Powell (HES), 23 December 2013.

November 2025. Northwest Norfolk Aerial Investigation and Mapping (AI&M) Project.
The Iron Age hillfort described above is visible on a variety of aerial photographs and visualised lidar data, including S36-S38. The principal hillfort enclosure has been mapped primarily from the earthworks visible on the visualised lidar data (S37), with some additional elements added from aerial photographs (S38). The inner ring ditch has been mapped from the cropmark visible on aerial photographs taken in 1996 (S36). The site is a Scheduled Monument and no longer in arable cultivation, so it is expected that the mapped earthworks still survive.
The AI&M mapping conforms in most respects with earlier depictions of the monument, with a broadly circular embankment surrounded by a ditch. A probable entrance is evident on its eastern side. A break in the northeast side could be a result of the enclosure being slighted by a later field boundary (since removed), rather than a genuine entrance. Two western entrances identified by geophysical survey (S34) may correspond with narrowing of the ditch circuit but only the southern one also aligns with a corresponding narrowing of the bank, and even then this is not pronounced. The lidar shows evidence of a low external bank on the eastern side of the enclosure, which is perhaps an external rampart protecting the entrance. This is probably the same feature as that mentioned in the Historic England Research Record for the site (S39). This mentions that the external rampart may be visible on Ordnance Survey aerial photographs taken in 1974 (S40), but when viewed in stereo the pale mark visible on these at this location appears more likely to be chalky material exposed in the side of the enclosure ditch.
The internal ring ditch is circular, with no obvious entrance visible. A shorter segment of lighter cropmark on its eastern side (at TF 8483 3526) appears to perhaps show a shallower – or differently filled – portion of the ditch, which may have been recut (or originally conceived) as a penannular ring ditch, but this is not entirely clear and no distinct break in the ditch circuit is evident. This is contrary to statements in the 2006 publication of geophysical survey and excavations at the site (S34) which claims at various points that the inner ring ditch is penannular, despite the fact that the geophysical survey published as part of that report appears to support the aerial photographic evidence in showing an unbroken ditch circuit. The Atlas of Hillforts record for the site (S35) notes ‘two ‘antennae’ ditches’ associated with the ring ditch but these were not identified by the AI&M survey. A possible linear mark crossing the ring ditch on aerial photographs taken in 1975 (S16), which could perhaps have been interpreted as ‘antennae’, looks more likely to be of modern origin than archaeological and has not been mapped. As discussed in the 2006 publication (S34), radiocarbon and OSL dates obtained from the ring ditch suggest a Bronze Age date, although only Iron Age pottery was recovered from the site (including the fill of the ring ditch). The ceramic evidence together with the postulated entrance through the ring ditch led to its interpretation as an Iron Age feature, perhaps a settlement enclosure, contemporary with the hillfort, but the aerial photographic evidence would suggest that, as acknowledged in the publication, a Bronze Age date (as a round barrow ditch, for example) is equally possible. A ring ditch of equal diameter surrounding a surviving Bronze Age round barrow has been recorded at Shepherd’s Hill, approximately 3km to the northeast (NHER 11712).
It should be noted that the Norfolk Air Photo Library aerial photograph included as Plate 1 in the publication of the excavations (S34) is erroneously captioned as ‘TF 8435/AB/ADR4’, taken in 1975. The vegetation shows that this is not correct and that it is one of the photographs taken on 19 June 1996 (S36).
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 10 November 2025.