Moneybury Hill lies in the Ashridge Estate on the Chiltern scarp above Aldbury, Hertfordshire, close to the prehistoric Grim's Ditch. The site is identified as a Roman-period civilian activity area, likely associated with rural settlement or small-scale industry on the chalk uplands, probably active during the 1st–4th centuries AD. Its precise character is poorly defined in the published record.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site sits within a densely occupied stretch of the Chilterns, near the Akeman Street corridor and within the agricultural hinterland of Verulamium (St Albans), reflecting the intensive rural exploitation of the dip-slope downland during the Roman period. It is not individually prominent but contributes to the pattern of small farmsteads and field systems clustering around the major Catuvellaunian centre.
Recorded finds from Moneybury Hill and the surrounding Ashridge woodland include Roman pottery scatters, tile, and coins recovered through fieldwalking and metal-detecting survey, with possible occupation traces noted near the Bronze Age round barrow on the hilltop. No systematic excavation has been published, so the site's plan, status, and chronology remain essentially unresolved.
Moneybury Hill lies in the Ashridge Estate on the Chiltern scarp above Aldbury, Hertfordshire, close to the prehistoric Grim's Ditch. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman site on Moneybury Hill is classified as a Roman site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Romano-British settlement and earthworks on Berkhamsted Common (2.2 km), Roman settlement at the Cow Roast Inn (3.7 km), Northchurch (4.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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