Old Oswestry Hillfort and its Landscape: Ancient Past, Uncertain Future

Tim Malim, George Nash, Tim Malim, George Nash

• Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789696127
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Old Oswestry is considered to be one of England's most precious archaeological jewels, described by Sir Cyril Fox in the 1930s as 'the outstanding work of the Early Iron Age type on the Marches of Wales', and its design is unique amongst hillforts in the UK. Located on the edge of the Shropshire Plain and just a kilometre north of the market town of Oswestry, the hillfort (and its hinterland landscape) can trace activity through artefactual evidence back at least 5000 years, with the last 3000 years evident as earthworks. The reader will notice that little in the way of archaeological investigation has occurred within the hillfort, and indeed, more excavation took place when its internal space became a training ground for trench warfare during World War I than through any academic endeavour. Old Oswestry Hillfort and its Landscape: Ancient Past, Uncertain Future, organised into 14 well-crafted chapters, charts the archaeology, folklore, heritage and landscape development of one of England's most enigmatic monuments, from the Iron Age, through its inclusion as part of an early medieval boundary between England and Wales, to its role during World War I when, between 1915 and 1918, over 4000 troops (including Oswestry's own great war poet Wilfrid Owen), were being trained at any one time for the Western Front.This book also discusses in detail the recent threats to the monument's special landscape from insensitive development and its alternative potential to act as a heritage gateway for the recreational and economic benefit of Oswestry and surrounding communities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Contents Page
• Contributors
• Preface. Old Oswestry – 80 years on
• Part 1 Setting the scene
• Chapter 1. The Prehistoric Marches – Warfare or Continuity?
• Chapter 2. Everybody needs good neighbours: Old Oswestry hillfort in context
• Chaper 3. Caer Ogyrfan – hillfort of the northern border
• Part 2 The hillfort
• Chapter 4. The Design and Setting of Old Oswestry Hillfort
• Chapter 5. The ‘Epona’ Stone, Old Oswestry Hillfort, Shropshire
• Chapter 6. A Giant, a Grail and a Whole New Story
• Chapter 7. Tribal identity and relations with the Romans – a tale of two tribes
• Chapter 8. Wat’s Dyke and its relationship to Old Oswestry Hillfort
• Part 3 The historic past and the present
• Chapter 9. A medieval legacy? An Assessment of the buildings belonging to Oldport Farm
• Chapter 10. A Fragmentary Fortress
• Chapter 11. The Industrial Heritage Around Old Oswestry
• Chapter 12. Ambiguity and shifting standards
• Chapter 13. Prehistory, Protest and Public Engagement
• Chapter 14. Oswestry Heritage Gateway: a landscape of opportunity