Gog Magog Downs
historyThe Gog Magog Downs (also known as the Gog Magog Hills or simply the Gogs) are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are a point labelled on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as "Telegraph Clump" - at 75 m and Little Trees Hill and Wandlebury Hill, both at 74 m (243ft). The area is undefined but is roughly the elevated area lying north west of the 41 m col at Worsted Lodge - .
Unlike the nearby hills of the Newmarket Ridge, which have steep sides but very flat tops, these hills have large drops between summits and as such have quite a distinctive appearance; Little Trees Hill looks particularly good from Huckeridge Hill near Sawston. The hills therefore have relatively high topographic prominence. Other tops include: Limepit Hill 56 m () — Mag's Hill () — Copley Hill () — Meggs Hill () — Fox Hill () — Clarke's Hill () — White Hill ().
History
The earliest mention of the biblical name Gog and Magog for this region is found in a decree of 1574, forbidding students to visit the Gog Magog Hills on pain of a fine.Once Around Wandlebury, W. Clark,1985,Cambridge Preservation Society, p.4.
Random excavations around the hills revealed the remains of defences at Copley Hill and Cherry Hinton, not older than the Iron Age but the sites themselves are now known already to have been occupied in the Bronze Age.Wandlebury Hillfort Cambridgeshire, P. Pattison and A. Oswald, 1995, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, Archaeological Field Survey Report, p.12. The better-preserved hill fort known as the Wandlebury Ring, which is now situated in a public park, had several concentric ditches and earthen walls, which were kept in place by wooden palisades. It was already inhabited in the Bronze Age Over the Hills to Cherry Hinton, H.C. Coppock, 1984, Plumridge, Linton, Cambridge,p.14. and archaeological findings include bronze and iron objects and pottery, including "Knobbed Ware", dating from the Bronze Age.
The peculiar name Gog and Magog seems to be a reminder of a terrible war as many, often mutilated, human skeletons were found here and as countless bronze weapons were found in the region to the north, p. 81-88, roughly between Devil's Dyke and the line between Littleport and Shippea Hill (once the shoreline of the Wash), which is one of the reasons why some believe that this site is of major historical significance.
"Telegraph clump" functioned as one of the locations for the Semaphore line, an optical telegraph system, between London and Great Yarmouth , from around the 1820s to around 1850.
The dowser and archaeologist Thomas Charles Lethbridge claimed to have found some ancient hill figures buried in the chalk under the surface of the hills. These purported to represent a sun-god, a moon-goddess and a warrior-god. Lethbridge's claims, however, were controversial and are not widely accepted.
In 1989 the »Magog Trust, a charity and registered company created for the purpose bought of the downs for £330,000 so it could be returned to chalk grassland and opened to the public.
However the bulk of the chalk downs have been converted to a golf course since 1901 by the Gog Magog Golf Club.»History of the Gog Magog Golf Club
References
- Gog and Magog and Guildhall for the characters Gog and Magog. How their names came to be attached to these hills is unknown.
- Chalk Formation
- East Cambridgeshire
- Army Manoeuvres of 1912
- Where Troy Once Stood
- »Ritual activity at the foot of the Gog Magog Hills
- »Fortean Traveller: The Gog Magog Hills, Cambridgeshire