CROFT AMBREY, AYMESTREY ... - English Heritage

At 300m above Ordnance Datum, the hill is a significant eminence and from it a number
of distant landscape features are visible (Fig 1). Without doubt, the views are stunning;
Titterstone Clee, the Black Mountains, the Malvern Hills, are all visible and before the
county reorganisation it was claimed that more than 12 counties could be seen from the
summit on a clear day (Anon 1898, 125: Anon 1960: 1970).
Croft Ambrey is, of course, well known in the archaeological literature as the site of the
extensive excavations undertaken by S C Stanford and the Woolhope Naturalists Field
Club during the 1960s that profoundly influenced thinking concerning Iron Age hillforts.
Given the purpose of earthwork analysis in utilising the, often subtle, surface traces to
unravel the history of the site, one would have imagined that the presence of an extensive
excavation record would only assist in that process and make it something of an easy
matter. Far from it. The legacy of this work has presented some difficulty in interpretation.
Analysis, understanding and interpretation of complex earthworks is one thing, but
reconciling them with an equally complex set of excavated events sometimes amounting
to 18 phases of Iron Age activity is quite another. For even though the survey was carried
out without the influence of prior research in order to eliminate any bias created through
expectations, there is nevertheless a tendency to try and 'fit' this in to the pre-existing
sequence rather than the other way around. Without excavation it is unlikely that the idea
of a 'plateau camp' with an original west entrance would have been entertained, there
being no evidence for its 'rampart' on the surface. It is important therefore, that the
reader consider this report in association with the various phasing plans and section
drawings in Stanford's (1974) excavation report. The latter was presented in a form that
invited re-interpretation and, as the author indicated on more than one occasion, the
explanations given may need to be considerably modified. No major reinterpretation of
the excavation evidence has been attempted here, although the present work highlights
the desirability of a modern synthesis of the material.
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