Torberry Hill

Hillfort
SU779203

Also known as:

Tarberry

Nearest town:

Petersfield (3km W)

OS reference:

SU779203

OS sheet:

197

Latitude:

50° 58' 34.51 N

Longitude:

0° 53' 25 W

Added to TMA by

pure joy

Images (3)
Folklore (3)

Images

Image of Torberry Hill (Hillfort) by juamei

Image Credit: Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.

Image credit: Open Source Environment Agency LIDAR

juamei Mar 25, 2018

Image of Torberry Hill (Hillfort) by A R Cane

Torberry Hillfort from Harting Hill on the South Downs.

Image credit: A R Cane

A R Cane Aug 18, 2008

Torberry Hillfort viewed from the South Downs Way looking North with Little Torberry Hill in the foreground.

Image credit: A R Cane

A R Cane Aug 18, 2008

Articles

Torberry Hill

Hillfort

Rhiannon Apr 6, 2015

Tarberry corner, where four roads meet, and where for many generations those who laid violent hands upon themselves were buried, is a famous haunt for ghosts. Some years ago a man returning from Petersfield in the dusk, saw an apparition here which made him quake. He groaned, fell on his knees, “said his prayers sharp,” and when he came to the end of the Lord’s Prayer, to his horror the spectre advanced to meet him. It was a jackass!
On the summit of Tarberry are ”Pharisees‘” (fairies’) rings, the simple folk say; and the “Pharisees” dance there on Midsummer’s night. These blundering superstitions are veritable specimens of old Sussex folk-lore.

From The History of Harting by the Rev. H.D. Gordon (1877). The crossroads seems to be just at the north foot of the hill.

Torberry Hill

Hillfort

Rhiannon Mar 2, 2005

The fort on Torberry Hill is spoon-shaped. The reason why? The Devil scalded his lips sipping hot punch from his ‘Devil’s Punchbowl’ and pettishly threw his spoon away, it landing heavily here.

The gold purejoy mentions was buried by Royalists. They obviously buried their treasure to avoid it being stolen by riff-raff: you need a golden plough to dig it up. Local rhymes are
“Who knows what Tarberry would bear,
Would plough it with a golden share.”
and
“He who would find what Tarberry would bear,
Must plough it with a golden share.”

And as purejoy suggests, Torberry is indeed a haunt of the fairies. In fact you can still see their bed. Well, actually the Fairy Bed is the cross-shaped base of a post-medieval mill. But that’s just dull.

From David Staveley’s Sussex Hillforts
homeusers.prestel.co.uk/aspen/sussex/hillfort.html#main#
and the Scheduled Monument record on Magic.gov.uk, also
Sussex Local Legends
Jacqueline Simpson
Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 3. (Autumn, 1973), pp. 206-223.

The midsummer dancing by the fairies is (according to Simpson, above) mentioned by H D Gordon, in ‘The History of Harting’ (1877) p19.

Torberry Hill

Hillfort

pure joy Mar 21, 2003

It was believed that the fairies would dance on this hill at midnight on Midsummer Eve. Gold was supposed to be hidden underground. Little trace apparently remains of the Iron Age hillfort on the summit.