{{Short description|Prehistoric earthwork in Somerset, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox historic site | name = Trendle Ring | native_name = | native_language = | image = Trendle Ring Somerset Map.jpg | caption = Plan of earthworks at Trendle Ring | locmapin = Somerset | coordinates = {{coord|51|08|51|N|3|15|49|W|display=inline,title}} | location = Bicknoller, Somerset, England | area = {{convert|0.8|ha|acre}} | built = Iron Age | architect = | architecture = | governing_body = | designation1 = Scheduled Monument | designation1_offname = Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork | designation1_date = 09 April 1976 | designation1_number = 1008249 | designation2 = | designation2_offname = | designation2_date = | designation2_number = }}
'''Trendle Ring''' (or ''Trundle Ring'') is a late prehistoric earthwork on the Quantock Hills near Bicknoller in Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Monument.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork, Bicknoller - 1008249 {{!}} Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1008249 |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=historicengland.org.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/33201 | title=Trendle Ring hillfort, Bicknoller Hill, Bicknoller | work=Somerset Historic Environment Record | publisher=Somerset County Council | accessdate=1 February 2011}}</ref> In 2013 it was added to the Heritage at Risk Register due to vulnerability to plant growth.<ref>{{cite web|title=Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork, Bicknoller - West Somerset|url=http://risk.english-heritage.org.uk/register.aspx?id=45188|work=Heritage at Risk|publisher=English Heritage|accessdate=20 October 2013}}</ref>
The word ''trendle'' means ''circle'', so it is a tautological place name.<ref name="adkins">''A Field Guide to Somerset Archaeology'', Lesley and Roy Adkins (1992) {{ISBN|0-946159-94-7}} page 114</ref>
The site, which covers {{convert|0.8|ha|acre}},<ref name="adkins"/> is surrounded by a single rampart with a ditch and has a simple opening on the East, uphill side. The hillside is steep and there are two areas which may have been more level platforms. It is situated on the slope of a hill which rises 130 m above the ring.
==Possible interpretations== Both the period of construction and the original purpose of the earthwork are uncertain. It has been described at different times by different authorities as a fort,<ref>{{cite web|work=Somerset Historic Environment Record|publisher=Somerset County Council |title=Cross ridge dyke, Bicknoller Hill, Bicknoller|url=http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/34701|accessdate=2 July 2013}}</ref><ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1008249 |desc=Trendle Ring hillfort and associated outwork|accessdate=5 April 2015}}</ref> a settlement,<ref>{{cite book|title=OS Map|publisher=Ordnance Survey|isbn=0-319-11216-0}}</ref> a livestock enclosure<ref>{{cite book|title=1802 OS Map|year=1802|publisher=Ordnance Survey}}</ref> and a hill-slope enclosure.<ref name="Riley">{{cite book|last=Riley|first=Hazel|title=The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills|publisher=English Heritage|isbn=978-1905624294|pages=60}}</ref> It may have served different purposes at different times. It has never been excavated and no found artifacts are associated with it.
The size of the 'ramparts' would argue for a defensive purpose, but the only entrance on the uphill side would not. The lack of any water supply would argue against any permanent human occupation and against its use as a livestock enclosure, although two more level areas inside the earthwork have been identified as possible building platforms.<ref>{{cite book|last=Riley|first=Hazel|title=The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills|publisher=English Heritage|isbn=978-1905624294|pages=62}}</ref> Hill-slope enclosures are found in South West England dating from the first and second millennium BC. When excavated, they have sometimes been found to have had settlements inside them, resembling defensible farmsteads,<ref name="Riley" /> but the extreme steepness of this site and its location halfway up the scarp of the Quantocks make it difficult to assign it a purely practical purpose.
==See also== * Plainsfield Camp * Dowsborough * List of hillforts and ancient settlements in Somerset * The Trendle, an ancient earthwork at Cerne Abbas
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * ''The Archaeology of Somerset'', Michael Aston and Ian Burrow (Eds) (1982) {{ISBN|0-86183-028-8}}
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Category:Hill forts in Somerset Category:History of Somerset Category:Scheduled monuments in West Somerset Category:Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in Somerset Category:Quantock Hills