Blewburton Hill began life
in the sixth or fifth century bc as a five acre stockaded camp at
the western end of the hill. The interior revealed a number of
round huts and storage pits. The present fort, covering ten acres,
was constructed around 400 bc. Standing above a deep V-shaped
ditch, its had double-faced timber ramparts were fixed together
with cross-beams and infilled with chalk rubble. On the western
side was an thirty-six foot wide gate with an extra six and a half
foot deep defensive ditch 2m deep inside. It probably had a bridge
over it.
After a period of desertion,
the hillfort was occupied again around 100 bc. The ramparts were
rebuilt in a 'dump style, the ditch was newly dug and a palisade
added to the counterscarp bank. The entrance was also remodelled
and faced with drystone walling; and a blessing from the gods was
invoked with the ritual slaughter and burial of some ten horses! An
event which may be remembered in the old legend of a man and his
horse who disappeared on the hill amid a clap of thunder. The fort
was finally abandoned around the middle of the first century bc,
possibly due to the expansion of hostile Belgic tribes