Belsar’s Hill, Willingham (RGL2026)

Belsar’s Hill, Willingham

History of Belsar's Hill, Willingham

Scheduled Monument

Belsar’s Hill is a medieval ringwork, constructed on top of a prehistoric enclosure and with associated remains of part of a medieval field system. … The track forms part of the medieval road to Ely, the `Aldreth Causeway’, and the ringwork is considered to have been built as a temporary camp by William the Conqueror during the assault on that town. It is considered that the ringwork was adapted from the remains of an earlier Iron Age camp. (Historic England)

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Generally thought to be an Iron Age fortification but may have been used at later times such as by the Normans when combating the forces of Hereward the Wake.

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1893-1/dissemination/pdf/englishh2-373061_1.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belsar%27s_Hill

In 1923 Cyril Fox (The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region p.137) described it as a circular ring-work 880 feet and 750 feet respectively in long and short diameter, with a single vallum and ditch, lying on the edge of the fen…… The ditch where it and the vallum are most perfect is marshy; and it must when the camp was in use have been a wet moat. Under natural conditions the site must have been very inaccessible.