Hitchin Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We profile some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Hitchin' while also encouraging opinion pieces from our readers and trusted contributors.

Here's the popular Sparky with his unique take on our town and surrounding areas

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A lockdown escape: climbing up on Wilbury Hill

'The woods hung dark on the hills; above, the sky violet, specked with minute feathery clouds, white as snowflakes'

Arthur Machen, The Hill of Dreams, 1907

There is sometimes a slight other-worldliness surrounding this week's subject, Wilbury Hill, but unlike the sensual pagan visions that possessed the Edwardian author Machen as he tramped over his local hill fort in Wales, you are much more likely to be haunted by litter and mounds of fly tipped detritus at this place.

Which is a shame, it being a scheduled ancient monument

Although the site of the original Wilbury Hill fort is now hidden by assorted roads, allotment gardens, a movie location, pub and a cemetery, it is the distinctive profile of the pine-rich woods 'that hang dark on the hills' that helpfully mark the spot for miles around - we all know where it is and many of us must pass it regularly.

But, to avoid familiarity breeding contempt for this special place let us now pause and explore and see what really sits beneath us here at this particular 'World's End'.

There are a chain of four such hillforts in our local area, roughly following a line of higher ground from the marvellously named East Anglia Heights in the east to Sharpenhoe Clappers in the south west.

They were constructed in 'The Age of Hill Forts' that ran approximately from 1500 to 150BC, although both of these dates are variable estimates, and Wilbury was almost certainly still being used at least into the first century AD, if not beyond.

Bronze Age

The main period of national hillfort construction, from the late Bronze Age into the Iron Age and beyond, marked a time of transition when our ancient forbears started to settle down, grow more crops, tend more cattle and just wanted to do it more safely. Here would have been no different.

We may well have a look at some of the other local hillforts in this chain at a later date- Arbury Banks at Ashwell, Ravensburgh Castle near Hexton and Sharpenhoe - as all are beautiful and fascinating in their own way.

Mapping

The historians, Malcolm Falkus and John Gillingham, previously mapped all of Britain's hillforts and our small cluster clearly stands out as an easterly outlier, widely separated from the vast numbers of similar sites that seem to cover the south west and the Welsh border regions.

The evidence does suggest that the Wilbury Hill hillfort is likely to have been more of a domestic settlement than a garrison for most of its existence and post holes have been found indicating domestic dwellings of various sizes.

There were earthworks, but unlike the other local hillforts, the remains of the ramparts are now hard to locate - I tried again this week - despite being marked on current OS maps.

For the technical amongst you this type of fort layout is known as a 'slight univallate hillfort': that is having one wall surrounding a ditch. This can be our 'word of the day'.

Despite this domesticity, the site was always strategically valuable, with the vital artery of the Icknield Way running right through the settlement and the view from the edge of the woods, especially to Ickleford and the Hitchin gap in the west, is still impressive today.

Such a vantage point would have given the original residents good warning of approaching friend and foe alike.

What the Romans did for us

Although shortly prior to the Roman invasion in AD43 our local tribe, the Catuvallauni, had ensured some stability and unity, it wasn't always the case: in earlier times the contents of such hillforts made them a tempting target for other less friendly, more hungry tribes in search of cattle, grain and other goodies.

During times of conflict, protection was offered by a series of ditches and ramparts topped with sharpened log palisades. Crop markings in the fields now give us a clue where these were situated.

However, when the Romans did arrive in force, many of these hillforts were overcome easily, being no match for these well-armed, well-trained and numerous invaders.

Some larger examples were able to put up a bit more of a fight - the occupants of Dorset's highly impressive Maiden Castle, for example - but I would imagine that Wilbury was a very different story.

Modern WIlbury

Modern life has disrupted and hidden the full extent of the settlement, which was originally quite large.

To the north it extended across to the road by the cemetery and to the south it extended some 500 metres alongside the Stotfold Road to Hitchin.

It even went under the allotment gardens to the east.

The Victorians dug a large sand and gravel pit in the north west corner, which survives to this day, but at least this incursion allowed our favourite local antiquarian, William Ransome, to get digging.

His finds, including coins, were deposited with Hitchin museum and enabled historians to confirm that the Romans had indeed taken over the site, which has in the more recent past been referred to as 'Roman camp'.

So, there is certainly more to this place than meets the eye.

Why not take the time during this lockdown take another look? Following the regulations, of course

And despite the fort having disappeared, the small wood slightly to the west can still be both atmospheric and beautiful and there is now even a bench that gives you the same view as the ancients had of Hitchin's fair valley far below.

And what of that bustle in the hedgerow behind you?

Well, it's either one of Machen's frolicking pagans blowing his pipe, a spectral legionnaire shaking his ghostly spear.

Or more likely just another fly-tipper simply trying to spoil it for everyone else.