Mellor hill fort facts for kids

Mellor hill fort is an ancient site in North West England. It dates back to the British Iron Age, a time from about 800 BC to 100 AD. This historic hill fort is located on a hill in Mellor, Greater Manchester. It sits on the western edge of the Peak District and looks out over the Cheshire Plain.

Even though it was mainly an Iron Age settlement, people were active here much earlier. Evidence shows activity as far back as 8,000 BC. During the Bronze Age, the hill might have been used for special burial ceremonies. Amazing finds, like a Bronze Age amber necklace, show that important people lived here. These people also traded with others from far away. The settlement was used even into the Roman period. It was then abandoned around the 4th century and forgotten until it was found again in the 1990s.

Where is Mellor Hill Fort?

Mellor is on the western edge of the Peak District. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The ancient Iron Age settlement is partly under St Thomas Church. It also stretches into the gardens of nearby homes.

The site is on a spur (a ridge of land) about 220 metres (720 feet) above sea level. It sits between two valleys that drop steeply. These valleys run west where two small streams meet the River Goyt. This meeting point is about 100 metres (330 feet) above sea level.

From the site, you can see great views of the Cheshire Plain. You can also see Alderley Edge to the south and hills to the north. Even though there are higher spots nearby, this location was good. It had access to water and river valleys. There was also flat land to the west for farming.

How Was Mellor Hill Fort Discovered?

For a long time, people didn't know much about hill forts. No one had dug them up, and their original purpose was forgotten. In the Middle Ages, people thought famous figures built them. These included Julius Caesar, King Arthur, and King Alfred.

In the 18th century, people believed hill forts were Roman. But in the 19th century, Augustus Pitt-Rivers did a big study. He found that hill forts were actually built during the Iron Age.

Studying hill forts became popular again in the 20th century. This was thanks to digs at places like Danebury. But the Mellor settlement was only found in the 1990s. This site didn't have clear earthworks, like a circular ditch. Such marks usually show ancient activity.

In 1995, during a dry spell, unusual marks were seen. Digs started in 1998. Instead of a medieval ditch, they found an Iron Age hill fort ditch! As of 2009, the digs were still happening. Before these digs, little was known about the Stockport area before 1,200 BC. People thought areas like Marple and Mellor had little prehistoric human activity.

Not much is known about Iron Age activity in North West England. Pottery is rare at sites there, and there are few settlement sites. Out of over 1,300 hill forts in England, only a few are in the northwest. This lack of sites led archaeologist Colin Haselgrove to call the region a "black hole" for the Iron Age. Mellor is the only hill fort in Greater Manchester. It is one of only four known Iron Age settlement sites in the county.

Life at Mellor Hill Fort

People lived at Mellor hill fort for a very long time. There is proof of human activity even before the Iron Age. This goes back to 8,000–6,000 BC. During this time, Mellor might have been a place where flint tools were made. It might also have been a camp used only at certain times of the year.

Over 200 stone tools have been found. They range from early to late Mesolithic times. Many of these are bladed tools. This shows that the people who made them were hunter-gatherers.

Bronze Age items are rare here, and there's no clear sign of people living here then. However, it's likely that people started living here long-term in the late Bronze Age.

Amazing Discoveries

A flint dagger was found at the site. This type of dagger is rare in Greater Manchester. The closest similar find is in Saddleworth. This dagger suggests that Mellor was used for burial ceremonies during the Bronze Age. Many hills near Mellor have Bronze Age burial sites. These include Brown Low, Shaw Cairn, and Werneth Low. This supports the idea that Mellor was also a burial site.

Bronze Age amber necklace discovered in 2008

Another amazing find from the Bronze Age was a rare and valuable amber necklace. Amber does not come from Britain naturally. The closest place to find it is the Baltic Sea. This means the necklace was traded over very long distances. This 4,000-year-old necklace was found as part of a burial.

Life in the Iron Age

The hill fort was built and used throughout the Iron Age. This is shown by all the items found from that time. People lived in roundhouses. The settlement was used for a very long time.

Like many other hill forts, Mellor was likely divided into different areas. There were places for living, for making things, and for farming activities like storing food. The layout of these areas changed over time. Digs show that the area inside the inner ditch was mainly for homes. The area between the inner and outer ditches was for farming. But sometimes, the outer area was also used for living.

The Roman fort of Melandra is nearby. Pieces of glass, possibly Roman, and pottery shards from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD show that the site was used during the Romano-British period. No Roman buildings have been found. It's not clear what kind of Roman activity happened here. The hilltop was easy to defend. But local finds suggest it was a high-status settlement, not a military base.

One reason no Roman buildings are found is that people might have kept living in roundhouses. They might not have built typical Roman rectangular buildings. This would make them hard to tell apart from Iron Age roundhouses. It would also mean local culture continued, instead of Roman styles being forced on them. It's also possible that Romans only influenced the area, rather than living there. The site was later left empty and forgotten until it was found again in the 1990s.

Archaeological Investigations

At sites like Danebury, where no modern buildings exist, archaeologists can dig up large areas. This helps them understand the whole layout. But Mellor hill fort is under the modern village of Mellor. This makes archaeological work harder.

A geophysical survey was done to find out how big the settlement was. Methods like magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar helped find the eastern and northern parts of the ditch around the site. Digs have focused around the Old Vicarage. By 2004, there were 43 trenches, 14 trial trenches, and 17 test pits.

The investigations have found two ditches. The outer ditch covers a larger area, but it is smaller than the inner ditch. We are not sure which ditch was built first.

The Inner Ditch

The inner ditch was cut into the sandstone bedrock. It is 4 metres (13 feet) wide and 2.1 metres (7 feet) deep. There was a palisade (a fence of strong posts) 3.25 metres (10.7 feet) beyond the inner edge of the ditch. At some point, part of the ditch was filled in. A posthole was put into it, possibly for a gateway.

Items found in the ditch show that the people here traded with salt-making communities in lowland Cheshire. The Very Coarse Pottery (VCP) used to hold salt at Mellor is like pieces found at the Iron Age site of Beeston Castle. A layer of charcoal has been radiocarbon dated to between 830 and 190 BC. The newest things found in the ditch include hundreds of Roman pottery pieces from the 1st to 4th centuries. Also found were bronze Roman brooches and Roman nails.

The Outer Ditch

The outer ditch is 1.5 metres (5 feet) wide and 1.4 metres (4.6 feet) deep. Like the inner ditch, it was cut into the local bedrock. A rare Iron Age pot was found in the outer ditch. It was made from 125 pieces. The material for the pot came from about 15 to 20 kilometres (9 to 12 miles) away in Castleton, Derbyshire.

The pot was found in one of the oldest layers in the ditch. It dates to the Iron Age. It was probably placed at the bottom of the ditch on purpose. This might have been part of a ritual after a big event, like digging the ditch. The inner ditch had a palisade, but neither ditch had a bank of earth next to it.

Learning About the Past

The archaeological digs since 1998 are paid for by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund. They have also been in the news. The site is used to train students in archaeology. It is also a community dig, helping people learn about ancient history. The Mellor Archaeological Trust helps with this.

In 2002, students from Ridge Danyers Sixth Form College built a replica roundhouse. It is still standing on the site today. Many items found at Mellor are on display at Stockport Museum. The site is open to the public every year in the first week of September. This lets people see the work done during the digging season.