Protection of the past
Ancient monuments such as Castle Hill are now protected under national legislation. This was not always the case: the Dyke Hills of Dorchester were one of the first threatened sites to generate public demands for protection.
Protecting the Dyke Hills
A national controversy arose around 1870 when a local Dorchester landowner decided to plough and flatten the earthworks of the Dyke Hills, which were then already known to be an ancient fortification.
General Pitt Rivers
An Oxford antiquarian, General Pitt Rivers (then Colonel Lane -Fox) protested against this destruction at a meeting of the Ethnological Society, which led to a campaign involving petitions and correspondence in the national press. The eastern part of the earthworks was saved and Pitt Rivers was subsequently made the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the whole country.
Conservation Vs economic pressures
Conservation did not always win against economic pressures. Even though an important Neolithic cursus and ring complex was recognised to the north of Dorchester from crop markings seen on air photos, gravel extraction was allowed in the mid 20th Century which removed most of these remains.
Cultivation during WWI and WWII
During both World Wars, the national need for self-sufficiency in food production led to the ploughing and cultivation of the land within and around the Clumps hillfort, probably destroying much of the archaeological value.
The shallowness of Iron Age pits found on Castle Hill during the 2003 excavations suggest that 'at least 150 mm of the natural chalk on the hilltop has been removed by the plough and washed downhill by rain and gravity'. Ploughing had removed the skull of a skeleton in a shallow grave (ref 3010)
Protection for Ancient Monuments
An Act of 1979 established protection for Ancient Monuments, such as Castle Hill, and the settlements ) around Northfield Farm on the Thames floodplain between Little and Long Wittenham.
