Philpots Promontory Fort, also known as Philpots Camp, is a late Iron Age fort located on a sandstone spur in the High Weald of Sussex, approximately 1 mile to the south west of the village of West Hoathly and two thirds of a mile to the north east of Wakehurst Place (home of the Millennium Seedbank) at a height of 145 metres. A promontory fort is defined as “A defensive enclosure created by constructing one or more lines of ramparts across a neck of land, in order to defend, or restrict access to, a spur or promontory, either inland or on the coast”.

Philpots Fort is about 15 acres in size and triangular in shape; the northern side being defined by a single bank and ditch and the western and south eastern sides by low, but steep, sandstone cliffs and boulders reaching up to 15 metres in height, though most are between 5 and 10 metres high. The Fort dates back to between 100BC and the Roman Invasion in 43AD, but excavations below in some of the natural shelters contained within the overhang of the cliffs have unearthed evidence in the form of worked flint flakes and implements such as ‘Horsham Points', a form of spear head, and leaf shaped arrowheads which point to the area being used by humans for hunting as long ago as 10,000 BC; a time when Britain was still connected by land to mainland Europe! Also found were some samples of early Neolithic pottery, which suggests that the area was being farmed from perhaps around 4500 BC. This site contains some serious history!

When we visited the site, we entered the defended area of land through an opening at the eastern end of the bank and noted that this is now just pasture and woodland. There is another opening at the western end of the bank and archaeological excavations in 1931 proved that these two openings were the original gateways to the fort. The extant bank is approximately 170 metres long and is up to 8 metres wide and 1.5 metres high in parts, with the ditch being up to 6 metres wide and 0.7 metres deep. It is not hard to draw the conclusion that the bank would have originally been much higher and the ditch considerably deeper, the dimensions having been eroded by 2,000 years of rain. Indeed, an excavation undertaken in 1931 concluded that the ditch was flat bottomed and around 2 metres deep. It is also likely that the bank was topped with a timber palisade which would have formed a formidable barrier on the most vulnerable side of the fort, a theory derived from the discovery of fragments of charcoal discovered during the 1931 excavations which probably exist as a result of the palisade being destroyed by fire. Could this have been as a result of a Roman invasion of the Fort?

The remains of the northern rampart

The north eastern entrance and the pastureland and woodland on the site of the fort

Having examined the ramparts and given due consideration to how, over 2000 years ago, men were digging the ditch and constructing the bank by hand we headed westwards into the woods and down a slope between sandstone rocks, which increased in height as we descended. As we reached the end of the rocks, we turned south and were given an early indication as to the scale of the moss covered cliffs which form the western side of the fort.

 
Almost immediately we came across Adullams Cave which is the site of many of the prehistoric findings and has been used by humans as a shelter for millennia. Indeed, it is reported that a hermit lived there until the early 20th century. The cave is named after the inscription on the outside which is thought to date to around 1760.

The descent to the western face of the cliffs

Adullams Cave

Some of the western face of the cliffs