Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The way into Stanton passes this charming thatched cottage (Section 1 southbound,
Section 13 northbound)
As well as Hetty Pegler's Tump and Belas Knap, there is another similar
burial mound of the same period on Frocester Hill, while at Crickley Hill
near Birdlip recent excavations reveal evidence of a 3 acre (1ΒΌ hectares)
Neolithic causewayed camp. This contained a village protected by earth-
work defences of a double ditch and dry walling topped by a palisade. The
discovery of flint arrowheads and items of charred fencing suggest that life
in the New Stone Age was not entirely peaceful.
Neolithic man was replaced by tribes of immigrants from the Low Coun-
tries. These so-called 'Beaker People' of the Bronze Age lived a mostly no-
madic existence, raising stock and undertaking a primitive form of cultiva-
tion before moving on. The most significant evidence of their occupation of
the Cotswolds (though these are not always clearly visible) is in the form
of round barrows, contrasting with the long barrows in which their prede-
cessors had buried their dead. Although there are more than 350 of these
round barrows, none of any importance are actually to be seen along the
Cotswold Way.
What is visible, however, is a series of hill and promontory forts dating
from the Iron Age, which lasted from about 700 BC until the Roman oc-
cupation. The work of Belgic immigrants known as Dobunni, it is thought
that these defended enclosures served different purposes. Some clearly
contained working communities with villages of long houses, some were
market centres or animal corrals, and some of the smaller enclosures per-
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