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Burrough Hill

Country parks in LeicestershireHill forts in LeicestershireHills of LeicestershireScheduled monuments in LeicestershireSomerby, Leicestershire
Tourist attractions in LeicestershireUse British English from July 2011
Burrough Hill gateway, 2011
Burrough Hill gateway, 2011

Burrough Hill is an Iron Age hillfort in Burrough on the Hill, 7 miles (11 km) south of Melton Mowbray in the English county of Leicestershire. Situated on a promontory about 210 metres (690 ft) above sea level, the site commands views over the surrounding countryside for miles around. There has been human activity in the area since at least the Mesolithic, and the hillfort was founded in the early Iron Age. In the medieval period, after the hillfort was abandoned, the hill was used as farmland. This ended in the 17th century when the parish the hill was in was enclosed. Traces of ridge and furrow show where the medieval fields were ploughed. Since the 1930s the site has been the subject of archaeological investigations and renewed excavations under the auspices of the University of Leicester began in 2010. Part of Burrough Hill Country Park and open to the public, the hillfort is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. According to archaeologist Dr Jeremy Taylor "sites like Burrough Hill were the nearest thing we have to a town before places like Leicester ever existed".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Burrough Hill (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Burrough Hill
Somerby Road, Melton Somerby

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Wikipedia: Burrough HillContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.699754 ° E -0.875517 °
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Burrough Hill Iron Age Fort

Somerby Road
LE14 2QZ Melton, Somerby
England, United Kingdom
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Burrough Hill gateway, 2011
Burrough Hill gateway, 2011
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Burrough on the Hill
Burrough on the Hill

Burrough-on-the Hill is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Somerby, in the Melton district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. It is 12 miles (19 km) north east of Leicester. The parish church is St. Mary the Virgin. Burrough Hill is an Iron Age hill fort near the village and is in an 86-acre (35 ha) country park of the same name. The hillfort stands on a promontory around 660 feet (200 m) above sea level, 7 miles (11 km) south of the modern settlement of Melton Mowbray. In 1931 the parish had a population of 214. The village's name means 'fortification on the hill'. Though later forms of Old English show that it could mean 'the earthen fortification on the hill'.On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished and merged with Somerby.The village shared John O' Gaunt railway station with the neighbouring village of Twyford. The station is adjacent to a 14-arch viaduct. Trains used to go north to Melton Mowbray, and south to Leicester and Market Harborough, but the line was closed in the 1960s. There is a local bus service to Melton Mowbray and Oakham. 10th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment During preparations for Operation Market Garden the 10th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment were billeted in and around Somerby before setting off to join the action the day after the outbreak of the Battle of Arnhem on 18 September 1944. The 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment Memorial at Burrough on the Hill was completed and unveiled in September 2019 by Friends of the Tenth. A memorial garden has also been created looking over and across to the valley where the battalion practised parachute drops and training exercises in 1944.