Take timetime outout – – Walk Walk

A wander in Weston Woods Take a woodland wonder and a trip back in time at Weston Woods.

Weston Woods was grassland until There are many paths to take Walk information the 1820s when landowner John through the woods. Those heading Hugh Smyth Pigott planted trees to south lead back down to the Distance: about 1 mile from the create a private game reserve. hillside streets, such as Bristol Road car park at end of Worlebury Lower, while going north leads Once the trees began to mature he Hill Road to the . towards Road and opened the woodland for public . Difficulty:a flat route. Watch use, creating drives and walks to your footing on the hillfort. take in the views. A wooden play area provides fun Can get muddy so wellies for younger children, while older During the First World War about recommended. ones can visit the purpose-built 80 per cent of the trees were felled BMX track. Be Covid aware: the woods for military use. are popular with walkers At a junction in the paths is the Since then, the wood has naturally and dog owners. Be mindful water tower, built in 1925 to re-vegetated. of up-to-date lockdown supply houses in Worlebury. restrictions and abide by the Weston Woods covers about 130 On the wall nearby is a blue latest guidance, including hectares and the south-eastern plaque marking when General that on hygiene and physical section, called Ashcombe Dwight Eisenhower visited Weston distancing. Wood, is classed as Woods for one night in 1944 ancient semi-natural en-route to the D-Day landings. woodland. Troops camped in Weston Woods This area is between the Toll Road and the best visited water tower, hidden from enemy in Spring planes by the tree cover. when the ground is The blue plaque was installed last covered in year by Weston-super-Mare Town wildflowers. Council.

24 North Life • Spring 2021 TakeTake time time out out –– WalkWalk

To the west of the water tower you Worlebury Camp covers about might see the Picwinnard cairn, a are 10 hectares and has a set of mound of stones. defended seven banks and ditches on the settlements – mostly found on eastern ramparts. The stones were built up in previous hilltops – that are surrounded by centuries by fisherman from The banks appear as rubble now circuits of banks and ditches. Birnbeck Island, who would throw a but in the Iron Age they would have stone on the pile for good luck. It may have been home to about been dry-stone walls, also called 200 people in the Iron Age. Many ramparts, up to 20 foot high. From the water tower there are hillforts would have been places two paths to take, both leading to These are most impressive at the of refuge, though, and not always Worlebury Camp Hillfort (the left- eastern end, with a single rampart lived in year-round. hand path is less muddy). still visible along the southern slope. In the Iron Age most people would This Iron Age hillfort dominates the The holes in the ground within the have lived in small settlements western end of Weston Woods and hillfort are stone-cut grain storage and farmsteads throughout the was designated as a scheduled pits. Ninety-three were excavated landscape and farmed the fertile monument in 1915, a nationally in the 19th century with discoveries higher ground. important archaeological site due of charred grain, weapons and to its rare coastal location, size Remnants of the prehistoric field animal bones. and considerable defences. system, known as Celtic fields, are still visible today to the east on Hill.

A detailed plan of the hillfort from the 1886 survey, taken from the book Worlebury: An Ancient Stronghold in the County of Somerset by CW Dymond (1886).

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