Combe Hill, East Sussex

Combe Hill is a causewayed enclosure, near Eastbourne in East Sussex, on the northern edge of the South Downs [1]. It consists of an inner circuit of ditches and banks, incomplete where it meets a steep slope on its north side, and the remains of an outer circuit [1]. The enclosure has been excavated twice: in 1949, by Reginald Musson, and in 1962, by Veronica Seton-Williams [1]. Charcoal fragments from Musson's dig were later dated to between 3500 and 3300 BC [1]. Musson also found a large quantity of Ebbsfleet ware pottery in one of the ditches [1]. Seton-Williams found three polished stone axes deposited in another ditch, perhaps not long after it had been dug [1]. The site is only 800 m from Butts Brow, another Neolithic enclosure, and the two locations are visible from each other; both sites may have seen Neolithic activity at the same time [1].