Warham Camp
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| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 The ramparts on the north-west side | |
| Location | Norfolk |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TF 943 408[1] |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 5.1 hectares (13 acres)[1] |
| Notification | 1984[1] |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Warham Camp is an Iron Age circular hillfort with a total diameter of 212 metres (232 yards) near Warham, south of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, England. It is a scheduled monument[2] dated to between 800BC and 43AD,[3] and a 5.1-hectare (13-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest,[1][4] located within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.[5] The University of East Anglia has described it as the best-preserved hill fort in Norfolk.[6][7]
First built by the Iceni people centuries before the Roman conquest of Britain, the monument later housed a Roman blacksmith. A section of its bank was partially destroyed in the 18th century rerouting of the River Stiffkey. It has now been the subject of archaeological excavations spanning 90 years.[7]
This unimproved chalk grassland site is heavily grazed by rabbits and cattle. It has diverse herb species such as common rock-rose and squinancywort, and butterflies including the chalkhill blue.[8]
A precise chronology for the site has been difficult to make clear. The fort was originally built by the local Iceni people, dating centuries before the 1st century AD Roman conquest of Britain. Centuries after the conquest, and after the establishment of nearby towns such as Venta Icenorum, an out-of-town Roman blacksmith was set up in the monument's interior in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Following this, no evidence of medieval activity has been observed, apart from a ridge and furrow pattern which is likely from ploughing in the 19th century.[7]
The fort is now divided into two parts across the earthworks' south-western edge by a channel of the River Stiffkey, which was diverted into its present channel in the eighteenth century, potentially to improve the view from the nearby Warham Grove House. This destroyed a portion of the fort's outer bank.[2][7]
