 
[aerial photograph / map]
The photograph above shows Cissbury Ring as seen
from the top of Church Hill, with Findon
in the valley below, during December 2004.
[aerial photograph / map]
This aerial photograph of Cissbury Ring
shows the full extent of the ramparts. Findon
is located to the west.
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Cissbury Ring is an Iron Age
hillfort. You can reach the base of the 600 foot hill by car and one
guidebook warns that the subsequent climb on foot "is not for the faint
hearted". But it is worth making the effort if you can, for the views
from the top are tremendous. On a clear day you can pick out Selsey and
the spire of Chichester Cathedral.
The lovely surroundings which provide the backdrop for
grazing sheep and galloping horses are dominated by the soaring
prominence of Cissbury Ring, a natural defensive
position which Iron Age settlers turned into a great fortress some
2,300 years ago.
Centuries before the hill was fortified, flint mines
were being worked in the area. Some of the shafts went down 40 feet,
with galleries radiating out from them; an extraordinary achievement by
Stone Age people, using only antler's horns for tools.
(Text © Gil Saunders 1997) |
Cissbury Ring is about one mile to the
east of Nepcote,
which is located at the southern end of Findon.
[aerial photograph / map]
[aerial photograph / map]
A view of Cissbury Ring looking
eastwards across Findon Valley from the foot of Bost Hill. The lower
end of Bost Hill marks the beginning of Findon Valley, is about one
mile south of Findon and leads up to the windmill
at High Salvington. [aerial photograph / map]
Findon Valley straddles Findon Road A24. The A24 leads
northwards past Findon Village towards London and southwards towards
Worthing.
[aerial photograph / map]
An older view of this impressive landmark taken from Long
Furlong A280 showing the ramparts, with Findon nestling below. The
large white building is the old Convent which was demolished in 1998.
[aerial photograph / map]
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Cissbury Ring is one of the
greatest of Britain's prehistoric hillforts. The banks and ditches
which you see are are the remains of a vast defensive wall enclosing an
area of 65 acres. The inner band is over a mile round.
Cissbury Ring is superbly sited to
command the surrounding downland and has magnificent views, from Beachy
Head to the Isle of Wight, with the sea in between and inland over the
Sussex Weald.
The builders of Cissbury were an Iron Age people and
this was probably their tribal capital. Its planning and construction
indicate the people were able and vigorous. Construction was begun
before 300 BC in the form of a ditch and bank revetted with timber to
present a raised wooden wall to an attacker. A partial excavation of
the site earlier this century showed that a ditch was cut over 3 metres
deep and loosened chalk (60,000 tonnes in all) was piled inside the
ring to form a bank which was topped with a timber palisade.
Tools available to the builders were picks made from
antlers, wooden spades and animal shoulder blades used as shovels.
When newly built it must have made a startling
impression, not only on account of its size, but because of the vivid
whiteness of so much exposed chalk.
At some time between 50 BC and 50 AD the ring was
deserted. There is evidence of farming during the Roman period within
the derelict ramparts.
The method of cultivation then in use led over a period
to a build-up of soil at the edge of the fields and the characteristic
pattern of ridges can still be seen. After withdrawl of the Roman army
from these shores in the 5th century AD, the ramparts were re-inforced,
but whether by the Saxons or as a defence against them has not been
determined.
Old as it is, the hillfort is by no means the earliest
of the remains here as the builders of Cissbury Ring
were already using an ancient site. Indications of field systems which
predate the ring have been found both inside and outside the
embankments.
(Text from the sign at the
foot of Cissbury Ring, reproduced by permission of
The National
Trust.)
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Sith(m)esteburh (978-1016)
Sieberie (1588)
Sissabury (1610)
Cis(i)burie (1637)
Cissibury (1732)
Sizebury (1774)
The scientific study of place-names is known as
'toponomastics'. It is as an important science in as much as
place-names almost always provide some sort of clue to the local
history of an area, its former inhabitants and their way of life.
Most place-names in Southern England date from before
the Norman Conquest of 1066 and so characterize the landscape of the
Anglo-Saxon occupation.
Although the name Cissbury appears
to derive its name from Cissa, one of the earliest Saxon invaders (449
AD), this is not in fact the case. The earliest attested form is in
fact 'Sith(m)esteburh' which occurs some 500 years later in the reign
of King Ethelred the Unready (978-1016).
A 'burgh' - from which we get '-bury' - is a
fortification, not a burial site and 'Sith(m)est-' means the latest or
last and possibly refers to the site's re-fortification at some time
after the completion of some neighbouring Saxon fort, perhaps at
Burpham.
Spelling - varying from 'Sieberie' (1588), to
'Sissabury' (1610), 'Cis(i)burie' (1637), 'Cissibury' (1732) and
'Sizebury' (1774) - seems to suggest that the name was consciously
altered (most probably in the late 16th Century) to accommodate a local
legend which linked the earthwork to the Saxon warlord.
(Text © Stephen
Jolly 1997)
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The many humps and hollows at the west end
of the enclosure are the remains of Britain's earliest known industry.
They are the filled-in openings of flint mines dating back to about
3,000 BC, and the spoil heaps of centuries of flint working. Over 250
pits have been counted, and some go down over 40 feet.
As a flint producing center Cissbury was only rivalled
by the later mines at Grimes Graves in Norfolk.
To the Neolithic people who mined here flint was
essential to their way of life. This material could be fractured to
produce a hard cutting edge and, by skillful knapping, formed to make
knives, axes, scapers and arrowheads.
They were particular about the quality of flint they
used and the skill of its manufacture. The flint from this site was
clearly well regarded and the mining and working of the stone into
implements were a flourishing industry for over a thousand years.
Examples of tools made from Cissbury flint has been
identified over a wide area, in specimens being found as far away as
the Eastern Mediterranean.
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The pits are bell shaped with narrow
openings and wide flat bottoms where the stratum bearing the best
flints accurs. Horizontal shafts radiate out along the flint-bearing
layers so that the pits are often interconnected. The six layers in the
adjacent diagram are labelled: (1) Top Stone - Poor Flint (2) Soft
Chalk (3) Upper Crust - Poor Flint (4) Hard Middle Chalk (5) Wall Stone
(6) Poor Stone - Good Flint.
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(Text from the sign
at the foot of Cissbury Ring, reproduced by
permission of The National Trust.)
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Flint was one of the most commonly
used materials for the manufacture of stone tools during the Stone Age,
as it splits into thin, sharp splinters called flakes or blades
(depending in the shape) when struck by another hard object (such as a
hammerstone made of another material). This process is referred to as knapping.
Britain's oldest flint mines are located at Church Hill.
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Hillforts are among the most impressive remains of the
Iron Age inhabitants of these islands. They are found througout Britain
and an important series is located on the chalk downlands of Southern
England.
The term hillfort is used to
describe the remains of an enclosure constructed on high ground by
prehistoric people. Eighteenth and early nineteenth century
investigations of these enclosures, noting their strategic siting,
referred to them as hillforts, and the name has stuck.
Our present use of the word fort brings to mind a
compact piece of military architecture but hillforts were never purely
military. The simplest of them were little more than corrals where a
group of people might be safe from surprise attack and the livestock
guarded against rustling. The larger ones, which were probably tribal
centres permanently settled, had vast ramparts, sometimes over a mile
round, topped with wooden palisades and were more like walled towns
than forts.
Modern archaeology has shown that hillforts which occur
widely in Western and Central Europe, vary considerably in size and
structure and presumably in purpose. They are the subject of much
recent and current investigation and many long held assumptions about
their use and age are being adjusted. It is now considered likely that
the earliest hillforts were built before 1,000 BC. Many were captured
by the invading Roman armies in 46 AD and their use declined. Some like
Cissbury, were re-fortified at the end of the Roman Period.
(Text from the sign at the
foot of Cissbury Ring, reproduced by permission of
The National
Trust.)
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Chanctonbury Ring
Not far from Cissbury Ring is another smaller hillfort called Chanctonbury
Ring, which is similarly located in a commanding position.
Pottery found and carbon dating on an animal bone suggest the fort was
built in the early Iron Age. It was later used by the Romans
as a religious site.
[aerial photograph / map]
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Because of its archaeological interest, Cissbury has
escaped the post war spread of ploughing on the Downs and as a
consequence is a precious example of natural unspoilt downland turf.
When you sit down to admire the view you may cover up to
30 different types of plants, all of them having survived the attention
of countless generations of sheep. They are mostly very long lived
perennials that can tolerate grazing, provided they are able to set
seed occasionally.
Ironically, it is only this long history of grazing on
the Downs that has prevented these delicate flowers and grasses from
being smothered by taller more vigorous plants and shrubs.
This rich plant community includes rarities such as
orchids, of which we find 8 species at Cissbury, or plants like the
Field Fleawort, which may have been favoured by our Iron Age ancestors
because of their value in discouraging bugs and lice when included in
bedding. Many other important flowers survive here that are the food
plants of caterpillars of our beautiful downland butterflies.
The National Trust has recorded 28
species on the site including our rarest, the Adonis Blue.
Adders, Slow Worms and Viviparous Lizards are also
common here and some of these may provide food for the Kestrels, as
could chicks of the Skylarks and the Grey Partridge which breed amongst
the grass.
The management of Cissbury is geared towards protecting
both the archaeological remains and the ecological interest. This is
best achieved by continuing the traditional management - grazing. This
prevents scrub developing which shades out the plants and damages the
buried archaeological evidence with its spreading roots.
(Text from the sign at the
foot of Cissbury Ring, reproduced by permission of
The National
Trust.)
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 Countryside
Code
Whenever you visit the countryside, please just take
photographs and only leave footprints, so other people who follow later
may enjoy the wild flowers and litter free surroundings. Also, please
leave all gates as you found them, ensure any dogs are kept under
control and keep footpaths clear. Thank you.
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The following are some events you may, or may not know
about Cissbury.
To say that Cissbury has a history, is an
understatement. The sound of the chipping of stones once rang out over
the surrounding countryside as Stone Age people, 3,600 years before the
birth of Christ, sank over 150 mine shafts, some up to 50 feet deep, in
their quest for flints. The shafts had a veritable rabbit warren of
galleries leading from them. It was here that the ancient miners
perspired as they toiled with primitive tools fashioned out of red deer
antlers. The Cissbury mines are believed to have been engineered when
other shafts in the Sussex area had been exhausted. It is hard to
imagine but the hill was at this time one of the major commercial and
industrial nerve centres of the Neolithic world, and supplies of
Cissbury flints have turned up in northern England and all over Europe.
At the time of Abraham, flint extraction was still in its heyday at
Cissbury and tools, weapons and articles of ritual were regularly
transported along the ancient ridgetop trackways en route to great
centres such as Stonehenge.
Two thousand years separate the sweat of these old flint
miners from the construction of the mighty Iron Age Fort at Cissbury as
a tribal headquarters and refuge in times of danger. An amazing
estimate of some 60,000 tons of chalk were excavated from the ditch
area to build the fine ramparts we see today. Even they are a shadow of
the former great earthwork which may have employed 200 men and taken
two years to complete. It was awesome and spectacular, surmounted by an
impressive enclosing mile-long defence wall of massive hewn timbers.
There were originally between 8,000 - 12,000 of these massive lumber
supports surrounding Cissbury, each about 15 feet high. A construction
of no mean feat in those days.
By 50 BC the Cissbury Camp appears to have gone out of
use as a fortress and was abandoned to the wind and rain. It took the
Romans to see the potential of the downland and they began to cultivate
considerable areas of land within the ramparts. It was possibly
administered and occupied as a military station and a unit of some long
forgotten legion was probably quartered on the sitelooking out to sea.
The Romano-British presence eventually diminished on
Cissbury and the landscape reverted back to a deserted open space.
Perhaps around a century later the Saxon pirates came up the valley
frightening the local native tribes. The hordes trekked out in small
pioneering groups to take by force any likely spot where they settted
down and commenced farming. Legend says that Cissa, the early Saxon
leader, in fact resided at Cissbury.
Around AD 1005-1020 the Saxon Royal Mint at Steyning was
transferred to Cissbury (possibly through the threat of invasion). The
coins were then minted within the embankments of the old disused fort.
The exact spot of this mint has never been located, although over
thirty 'Cissbury' minted coins are in existence.
Nearer to our own time, during Elizabethan days, an old
chart records the name of 'Old Bury' relating to Cissbury
Ring. This title appears to have remained up until the 19th
century when Easter festivals were conducted there. The function
appears to have been very emotive and 'Kiss in the Ring' was enacted as
the locals danced with high spirited gaiety in a circle, singing as
they went:
Hey-diddle-derry, let's dance on the Bury.
It was not uncommon as proceedings drew to a close for
young people to disperse into the surrounding fields and scrub. Far too
many 'Easter' infants are said to have been born nine months later as a
result of these capers on 'The Bury'.
With the 19th century, came the age of the hilltop
explorers and the Reverend Edward Turner wrote in a paper dated 1849
saying he had discovered the foundations of a Roman camp headquarters
or praetorium on the centre of the hilltop. This has not been located
since nor confirmed by any later surveyors. It must be said that it was
around this time that the summit of Cissbury Ring
was under cultivation and oats were grown on the plateau.
In 1857 a gentleman by the name of Mr G V Irving made a
study of the windswept location. Strange as it may now seem, he thought
the flints of little consequence and dismissed them! Some people of
this era presumed the site to be a burial ground of the Romans, or even
the Celts.
There may even be treasure beneath Cissbury
Ring! It was believed that an ancient civilisation had
concealed their wealth of gold in the hill. A story tells of some men
from the Worthing area who discovered the legendary tunnel leading from
Offington Hall to Cissbury Ring. The passage was
sealed with debris and they eagerly cleared the way with their picks
and spades as they imagined the reward awaiting them. The unlikely tale
ends when the treasure seekers were faced with hissing serpents at the
end of the tunnel and the men retreated.
Coming to a more realistic era in 1867, Colonel Lane Fox
began some excavations on Cissbury Ring. He dug
down into a selected pit and with much elation came across a mine
shaft, although at this point he did not realise its significance. He
found a gallery running under the rampart and ditch, (the actual roof
to this gallery being only some 3 feet under the ditch). As this
explorer was crawling along, a skeleton's jaw fell on him! He had
unknowingly disturbed the remains of a woman aged between 25 and 30,
buried head downwards in a vertical position in the shaft. The skull
had become dislodged and it was her lower jaw which had landed on the
poor man. It was surmised that the body had been restrained around the
arms and legs and lowered into the pit before infilling with debris.
However, was she buried dead or alive? It was later determined that the
arms of the woman were short due to her suffering from infantile
paralysis.
Following this, a spate of excavations brought more
attention and enthusiastic investigators to the Cissbury hill site.
Plans of various joint operations revealed a quite unique subterranean
network of radiating galleries under the crest of the hill.
By 1878, a gentleman by the name of Mr Park Harrison
disclosed that he had found the underground caves to have been utilized
for habitation, including fires. Yet another skeleton was then
unearthed in debris in a disused shaft. It was that of a male, aged
between 25 and 30, and he was said to have suffered from hemiplegia as
a child. A large typical flint hatchet was laying discarded beside the
remains. It seems strange that both skeletons showed evidence of being
afflicted with some disability. One imagines that flint mining would
require an amount of physical strength, which leads one to question
whether these are the remains of flint miners or other unfortunates!
During World War II, the Ring was brought within the
Sussex Defence Scheme and trenches were dug and gun emplacements sliced
into the Iron Age ramparts. Barbed wire was evident everywhere. In
1942, a sculptured head which had been deftly chiselled out of chalk,
came into the news as being discovered at Cissbury. It was promptly
forwarded to the Worthing Museum. The artistry had been executed to
half life-size and appeared rather grotesque with what might be
described as an Adolf Hitler "look alike" growth on the upper lip.
Before the end of hostilities, the offender owned up and it was
revealed as a practical joke. The work of art was quickly condemned to
a cupboard in the museum and was never seen again.
To bring Cissbury up to within living memory, in 1953
archaeologists discovered a further skeleton from the Neolithic Age in
a tunnel. This was another woman, aged about 20. She had been carrying
a torch and it was thought she had met a ghastly fate when the passage
had collapsed 3,000 years ago and had crushed her head.
When roaming the ramparts of Cissbury Ring,
the walker may now survey the scene from a different perspective. It
has not always been a windswept summit, and when one considers the past
history in conjunction with that special Cissbury atmosphere, it must
be questioned if there are forces of a overpowering nature at work.
Dachshunds were originally bred to hunt foxes and
rabbits as well as badgers. George was two years old and blond and wore
a red collar. On Sunday, 26th January, l997 at Cissbury Ring,
this miniature dachshund may have followed the instinct of his breed
and pursued his quarry underground in the hope of tracking and flushing
it out. Sadly, George vanished without trace. Jenny, his owner,
searched in vain for him and returned with her husband day after day in
an attempt to find him. Advertisements were placed in the local press
and billed on likely spots on Nepcote Green, in the hope that someone
would come foward with news. The Fire Brigade were alerted and came to
the 65 acre Ring to assist in an attempt to locate him. It was all to
no avail and eventually time ran out. Jenny would like to let all the
helpers and fellow dog walkers know how grateful she was at the time
for their assistance in searching for George. As can be guessed, she
spent many hours up on the high downland of Cissbury Ring
and is the first to admit to its unaccountable eerie qualities,
especially as night drew in as she continued her search earlier that
year.
(Stories from the West
Sussex Ring © Valerie Martin 1997)
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Reaching Cissbury Ring by
public transport
There is a railway station in Worthing [aerial photograph / map] and
regular bus service from there to Findon
Valley and Findon Village. You can then walk
to Cissbury Ring from Findon
Village or Findon
Valley:
Reaching
Cissbury Ring by car
There are two car parks within walking distance of Cissbury
Ring:
- Whilst Cissbury Ring can be reached
by car via Nepcote,
there are few parking spacesat this car park. The parking space
situated at the foot of Cissbury Ring [aerial photograph / map] is very
small. It can be reached by driving up Nepcote Lane from Findon Village, past the Wattle
House on Nepcote
Green. [aerial photograph / map] The car
park is usually full, as this well known archaeolical site is extremely
popular, particularly at weekends and during holidays.
- The other is much bigger and located in Findon
Valley. It can be reached from Findon Village by driving
southwards along the Findon Road A24 towards Worthing and taking the
first turning on the left as soon as you reach Findon Valley. After
turning into May Tree Avenue [aerial photograph / map], turn
left into Storrington Rise and continue to the car park which is
situated at the top of the hill. [aerial photograph / map]
External links
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