Place Name
Comes from the erroneous 19thCentury notion that Julius Caesar had camped near here. The story goes that the great Roman general’s forces had set down at this spot before crossing the River Thames during his second invasion of Britain. However, all evidence points to the fact it was a fortification of the Ancient Britons long before the Romans landed. But this is not the only myth to have been attached to the site. The Elizabethan antiquary William Camden referenced it in his wide-ranging history and survey of the British Isles, Britannia, calling it Bensbury. This, he claimed, was on the grounds that it was named after a Saxon captain called Cneben who was killed fighting for King Ethelbert during a civil war; he wrote “tis possible that the military fortification I saw here of a circular form, called Bensbury or Cnebensbury, might take [his] name”. In fact, as Camden knew perfectly well, the slain warrior was called Cnebban. In fact it was the remains of an Iron Age hill fort. Though the main period of use as a fortified town or settlement seems to have been the 6th to 4th centuries BC, there is some evidence that it was indeed stormed by the Romans, probably in the Invasion of Britain by Claudius. As well as Bensbury, the Camp was also called Warren Bulwarks and The Rounds. The ramparts were levelled in 1875 by an owner who intended building on the site. The fort is now a scheduled ancient monument.
