Scoles Coppice Fort

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Scoles Coppice

Scholes (or Scoles) Coppice Camp (sometimes called “Caesar’s Camp”) lies just north-west of Kimberworth in Rotherham, atop the same Magnesian Limestone ridge that carries the Roman Rig. Its grid reference is roughly SE 436 937, placing it only 200–300 m to the north of the Rig’s northern branch (heritagegateway.org.uk).

Site & Structure

Scholes Coppice Camp is a classic small Iron-Age enclosure, roughly oval in plan, c. 60 × 45 m internally. It is defined by: A substantial outer bank of earth and limestone rubble, surviving to between 2 m and 5 m in height and up to 15 m across at its widest § (en.wikipedia.org). A parallel ditch on the interior (downslope) side of the bank, also about 15 m wide overall.

No clear surviving entrance, though subtle re-entrant gaps on the east and west sides may mark original gates (heritagegateway.org.uk).

Geology & Geography

The camp and the Rig both exploit the Magnesian Limestone ridge that overlooks the Don Valley. Here, thin soils over limestone provide good drainage—essential for both defensive Earthworks and the Iron-Age stock a community would have kept within the enclosure. Springs at the limestone–shale contact lie just to the south, supplying water for the inhabitants (en.wikipedia.org).

Archaeological Investigations

Atkinson, Latham & Sydes (1992) conducted trial-trenches across the bank and ditch. They recorded a turf-revetted revetment facing on the bank’s outer side, and recovered a scatter of coarse Iron-Age pottery and struck flints from the ditch fill—but no Roman material—indicating a primarily pre-Roman date (researchframeworks.org). South Yorkshire Historic Environment Research Framework (2018) notes that the enclosure likely functioned alongside nearby hillforts (e.g. Wincobank) as part of a Brigantian territorial network, controlling movement along the ridge and overseeing lowland routes (researchframeworks.org). Field survey (Probyn 2000) mapped the enclosure precisely and showed that the Rig skirts its southern perimeter without physically connecting—suggesting contemporaneous but independent defensive features rather than one continuous dyke (scispace.com).

Relationship to the Roman Rig

Scholes Coppice Camp and the Roman Rig together form a composite frontier system on this ridge. The camp sits a little above the Rig’s bank-and-ditch, allowing watchmen a commanding view south toward the Don floodplain.

Although earlier antiquarians once assumed the Rig was a Roman road, we now understand both earthworks to be non-Roman, most likely Iron-Age (1st century BC–1st century AD) and tied to Brigantian defensive strategies (researchframeworks.org).

The lack of a formal gate or gap where the Rig meets the camp implies that each monument was built for its own purpose—the camp as a defended settlement or refuge, the Rig as a linear boundary or intervisibility horizon across Brigantian territory.

Scholes Coppice Camp is a well-preserved Iron-Age enclosure whose robust bank and ditch stand in close proximity—but not direct connection—to the Roman Rig. Together they mark out a fortified ridge-top complex that governed access to South Yorkshire’s Don Valley during the late first millennium BC.

"Scholes Wood, hill-slope fort. This is an oval site of about 1 acre, It is protected by a bank and ditch and has an original entrance at the NE. The main bank rises 3ft. above the interior. The site is overlooked by higher ground NE, W and S. Date, c. 1st century BC - 1st century AD. : but some believe it is not prehistoric" Guide to Prehistoric England, Nicholas Thonas, 1960.

 

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