New programme to secure the future of famous Shropshire landmarks
A project has been launched to explore the historic past of Shropshire's highest hill to help safeguard its future.
The three-year programme led by the Foundation for Common Land will investigate the iron age, medieval and industrial landscape of Clee Liberty Common, Brown Clee.
It comes as part of a £3 million project to secure the future of upland commons in England, including Shropshire’s Long Mynd, Stiperstones, and Clee Liberty.
Renée Wallace, project officer for Shropshire Hills, said that the first phase involved volunteers mending and researching a hillfort.
“The Our Uplands Commons project is all about helping commoners adapt and survive as well as growing the public’s enjoyment of, and respect for, commons and commoning," she added.
According to the Foundation for Common Land, three per cent or 400,000 hectares of England remains common land – land owned by a person or collective, over which other persons (commoners) have certain rights.
Common land has open access, which means that everyone has the right to enjoy this land for recreational purposes and learning.
In October, 17 volunteers undertook fieldwork to help heritage experts investigate and repair Nordy Bank – a well-preserved iron age hillfort dating back to 400 BC.
Matt Williams and Janine Young from Shrewsbury-based Fearn Heritage & Archaeology led the work, following protocols agreed with Historic England.
Renée Wallace said that it provided an opportunity to look inside the rampart and record its construction, which unearthed a posthole.
“The last surviving fort of three on the slopes of Brown Clee, its ramparts are still steep and formidable. It’s easy to imagine why it was chosen as a place to face enemy attack,” Renée added.
The fort would have been covered by an area of 3.2 hectares – around the size of three rugby pitches – and could have served as anything from a fort to a stock enclosure, or even a place of refuge.
November will see more opportunities for people to join in with a survey of the interior of the hillfort, carried out by Archaeological Survey West, and people are invited to pop along for an hour over three days starting from November 19.
“People are also invited to a talk and demonstration by the specialists at 2pm on Saturday, November 20 at Nordy Bank hillfort entrance.
“And, when conditions are right, a mapping exercise using lidar, or light detection and ranging technology is also planned," Renée said.
“That will create a digital 3D map to reveal archaeological clues on and below the surface, gathered by equipment on a plane. It’s the same technology that was used to map the moon during the 1971 Apollo 15 mission.
“Volunteers will learn to interpret the data and compare it with other records and what can be seen on the ground.”
For more information about the work at Nordy Bank and elsewhere on Clee Liberty, and for updates, contact Renée Wallace at renee@foundationforcommonland.org.uk.
