In the 1830s, someone digging on Ring Hill at Haresfield made a remarkable find: a hoard of roughly 2,000 Roman coins, many in mint condition. The coins dated mainly from the period AD 306-340, the era of Constantine the Great, when the Roman Empire was undergoing its transformation from paganism to Christianity. For decades after the discovery, Ring Hill was interpreted as a Roman camp, and the coins seemed to confirm it. But more recent archaeological work has rewritten that story. The earthworks on Ring Hill — a promontory fort covering about five hectares at the end of a spur projecting westward from the Cotswold escarpment — are now identified as Iron Age in origin, predating the Roman coins by several centuries. The Romans evidently found the site useful too: surface scatters of pottery, roof tile and limestone slabs at the eastern end of Ring Hill point to a Romano-British building, and fragments of glass vessels and third- to fourth-century pottery have also been recorded. Only two coins from the original hoard are known to survive: one of Claudius Gothicus and one of Constantine, both now in Gloucester City Museum. A single Urbs Roma coin in mint condition, attributed to the hoard, is held by Stroud Museum. The earthworks were first mapped by Samuel Lysons in 1797 and described in detail by Lloyd Baker in 1821, who recognised them as part of a chain of defensive sites running along the Cotswold escarpment.
“The earthworks on Ring Hill — a promontory fort covering about five hectares at the end of a spur projecting westward from the Cotswold escarpment — are now identified as Iron Age in origin, predating the Roman coins by several centuries.”
