Essex: IRON Age Bmx tracks

Yesterday I went to Epping Forest, the so-called 'Cockney Paradise'. It's a fair old way from London, but it was worth it. Its been a coppiced forest since the 12th century when King Henry II decided he wouldn't mind a huge chunk of Essex as his own personal hunting estate. It's full of beech, birch, oak, hornbeam and linden. Repeated coppicing has created its own unique environment and it is now an SSSI.

Within the forest are two Iron Age (Celtic) hill forts, made in about 500 BC; Loughton Camp and Ambresbury Banks. The Trinovantes built them to stop those pesky Catuvellauni from stealing their livestock. Or, the Catuvellauni built them; we don't know which. They are the two most southerly of a line of hillforts stretching all the way to Cambridge, marking the north/south border between the two tribes. 

Large earth banks were dug by hand, 3 meters high, with ditches on the outer side adding a further 2 or 3 meters in height for attackers to contend with. Wooden palisades were built on the earthworks, with gates on two sides, and huts inside for the residents, but all of that is long gone. Now, what remains is a series of long mounds, which look not unlike...neglected BMX tracks.

Signs up at both camps warn people NOT to ride bikes on the earthworks, and you can see why. As a kid from Epping or Loughton, you'd find them in your local woodland and say "let's go do jumps on those funny mounds with the flat bit in the middle", quite unaware that you were riding on a Scheduled Monument. 

Loughton ('Luffton') Camp is the most southerly of the line. It's said to have been the burial place of Boudicca - but it seems that same story attaches to many mounds and earthworks in these parts. It's also said to be the hiding place of the highwayman Dick Turpin, who plagued the London gentry in the 18th century. 

Getting to Ambresbury Banks required a fair old slog through the north part of the forest where the paths are fewer, and I got slightly lost a few times when my reception failed, but I eventually stumbled on some earthworks and saw clear signs that someone had been riding bikes on them. Then, five minutes later, I found the sign for the real Ambresbury Banks, and I started to wonder what I'd found five minutes ago. An actual BMX track?

Suddenly, every strange turn of the earth started to look like either an ancient fortress, or something dug by a council worker with an earthmover in the 70s. Most were probably just creek beds. But a guy can dream. 

Ambresbury Banks was, according to legend, the place where Boudicca lost her final battle against the Romans. She really got around! It's also said to be named after a 5th-Century (Arthurian-era) hero called Ambrosius Aurelianus, who is one of the prototypes for the wizard Merlin. 

Find a funny old mound in the woods in these parts, and chances are high that it's got some association with either Boudicca or Merlin. This is the territory in which the Celts lost out, first to the Romans in the 1st century, then to the Saxons, 400 years later.

I stumbled into Epping and thought about finishing the day with a trip to Waltham Abbey by bus, but the traffic on the Epping High Road was at a crawl, so I got the Overland back to my place, and then went out to see a Glasgow folk band called Lussa. They were quite excellent. 

I'm off to Whitechapel now. Might blog again tomorrow. S.