Monument MPM1969 - Earthworks, Southwick Hill Crossroads

Earthworks consisting of trenches with a bank on either side, formerly located on the north and south side of the crossroads with Southwick Hill Road and Portsdown Hill Road. The earthworks to the north of the road were destroyed when a new road junction was constructed in 1956. Those to the south are no longer visible. The trench on the north side had a zig-zag pattern. The earthworks had previously been interpreted as 19th century entrenchments, but their design suggests they were most likely to have been constructed during the First World War. The exact purpose of the earthworks is not known.

Earthworks formerly located on the north and south side of the crossroads with Southwick Hill Road and Portsdown Hill Road. The features are clearly visible on aerial photographs taken in 1956 prior to the construction of a new road junction at the site. The earthworks on the north side of the crossroads were destroyed in 1956. Those on the south side are no longer visible and may have been destroyed/infilled. However, this area has not been built on and it is therefore possible some trace may survive below ground.

The earthwork to the north of the road appears to have comprised a zig-zag trench with banks either side running north-south for approximately 30m. The earthworks to the south of the crossroads also consisted of a trench/trenches with banks either side, but look more as though they enclosed a defensive position. The trench/trenches ran south from the road and then appear to have turned east.

The northern earthwork was located on the west side of a Prehistoric and Anglo-Saxon burial ground excavated in 1948 and 1956. The report on the excavations (Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol XXIV 1967) records the observation in 1948 of two 5ft high parallel banks separated by a shallow ditch, orientated east and west across the site. One of the banks had partly overlain an Anglo-Saxon burial. In the report the earthwork was interpreted as 19th century entrenchments destroyed in 1956. However, the zig-zag design of the trenches would suggest a 20th century date, and it is thought most likely that they were constructed during the First World War (Museum Military History Curator). They may have been excavated as practice trenches or to defend/control access to the crossroads and the approach to Fort Widley. A biography of Lieutenant Ronald William Poulton Palmer records that the 4th Royal Berkshires spent three days digging trenches on Portsdown Hill in August 1914, and that these formed part of a network of defences around Portsmouth ('For Poulton and England: The Life and Times of an Edwardian Rugby Hero' James Corsan 2009 p279).

Portsmouth City Council, 1956, Southwick Hill Crossroads (Photograph). SPM569.

Corney, A et al, 1969, A Prehistoric and Anglo-Saxon Burial Ground Portsdown, Portsmouth, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol XXIV (1967), p.26-33 (Bibliographic reference). SPM98.

Corsan, James, 2009, For Poulton and England: The Life and Times of an Edwardian Rugby Hero (Bibliographic reference). SPM570.