LANDMARKS - Warham Camp Iron Age Fort

No one, it appears, can be completely certain what it was originally - a safe haven during tribal attack, a stopping off point, a seasonal camp enclosure or a permanent settlement and defensive fort. So its called Warham Camp Iron Age Fort, in order to cover all the possibilities without settling definitively on one. That it is late Iron Age in origin is clear. There are a number of similar 'Iron Age Forts' in Norfolk. The one at South Creake is so ploughed out its now only a slightly raised circular area. The one at Holkham is on private land and can really only be viewed from a great distance. The maps show it as being half lost to the salt marsh. I've not visited the ones in Narborough or Thetford, which have apparently not fared any better.

Wareham Camp Iron Age Fort is then unique in Norfolk for having a circular ditch and rampart layout relatively complete. The best preserved earthwork in this area. Finds have shown it was in constant occupation from the Iron Age, through to the Roman period where traces of a building have been found. It ceased being an inhabited site or in regular use by the 2nd Century AD. There is a barrow burial mound nearby called Fiddlers Hill. Referred to locally as Danish Camp, indicating perhaps some sort of Scandinavian presence here in the centuries following the Roman exodus.

How it has stayed so relatively unaffected by changes in farming practice since, is another matter. Areas within the hill fort itself were affected by mediaeval ridge and furrow ploughing. But as this didn't persist beyond that time it might indicate the land is perhaps too poor in quality and uneven to be completely salvaged for more modern agricultural methods and crops.  More ideally suited to the grazing and penning of animals. Hence its survival.

You approach it from the main road up the hill leading out of Warham village itself. Opposite the Three Horseshoes pub. Around the brow of the hill is a short gated and stiled narrow lane running off to the right. You wont see the fort' until you are pretty much at the end of this. The 'forts' situation in the landscape tells us a lot about why it is where it is. It sits on the brow of the hill with nothing to obscure its view of the low valley beneath. The land on its westerly face slopes away. So it has a defensive advantage in being placed where it is. The Stiffkey River currently flows to the southwest, an 18th century alteration, that cut  and levelled this side of the earthworks. Originally it ran in a curve around to the west.

The 'fort' was actually large with an external dimension of 215 metres, internal 120 metres. So it could have accommodated many dwellings were it a defensive enclosure, with or without constant habitation. Archaeological excavations have found evidence of timber palisades and revetments. Its position on a chalk escarpment means when the ramparts and ditches were first cut, it would have shone out quite brightly in the landscape. A declaration of presence and of power. Its unclear whether this was ever a stronghold of the Iceni tribe.

Today its a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Site of Scientific Interest. In recent summers its entire 13 acre site has been left to go completely wild. Becoming a beautiful haven full of wildflowers and insects that is utterly magical. Warham Camp Iron Age Fort, is always an atmospheric place to visit whatever the time of year. Its 360 degree panoramic views on any sunny day can be stunning. Its somewhere you can imagine yourself thousands of years ago, looking out over a much quieter, wilder, but perhaps more hostile, less cultivated landscape and civilised world.