Highdown Hill

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Highdown Hill is a high hill in the South Downs, as its name suggests. It is a popular spot for picnickers, dog-walkers and local riders. It overlooks Littlehampton, Angmering and Worthing with views, when the weather is good, east as far as the Seven Sisters and west to the Isle of Wight. It is the property of the National Trust. To the north Cissbury Ring and Chanctonbury Ring can be seen.

Human occupation of the hill seems to have started in the Late Bronze Age (around 1000 BC) when an enclosure was built. By the Early Iron Age (around 600 BC) this had been replaced by a hill fort composed of a single rampart and ditch. An Anglo-Saxon cemetery was created on the site around 450 AD which has produced an unusual number of glass objects, which can now be seen in Worthing Museum. This cemetery was discovered by accident in the 1890's when local landowner Edwin Henty undertook tree planting inside the hillfort. His workmen had unfortunately discarded much material before salvage work could begin.

In the eighteenth century the miller John Oliver had his tomb built on the hill 27 years before his death in 1793. It is said that he was in fact the leader of local smugglers and used the tomb to store contraband. He would set the sails of his windmill at different angles to indicate the absence of customs men to his followers out at sea. The remains of the mill can still be seen on the west side of the hill. Local legend has it that a runaway millstone from this mill is the source of the name Roundstone for the farm and pub, and prominent garden centre at the foot of the hill.

During World War II a radar station was built on the hill and considerable damage was done to the archaeology during its construction. Further damage was done as trees were uprooted following the great storm of 1987 leading to a rescue dig in 1988.

Highdown Gardens lie in a former chalk pit below the hill.