The organisers of the Ruthin Local History Society will be well pleased by the numbers attending yesterday's inaugural meeting. It's reported that 65 people packed the ambulance hall. No doubt there would have been apologies and this means the membership will likely rival that of the Ruthin & District Civic Association (with 102 current supporters). Like RADCA, the historic society had no one present under 50 and virtually everyone was over 60 or, indeed, 70.
The talk by Denbighshire archaeologist Fiona Gale was entitled "The Hillforts of the Clwydian Range, Excavations and Ideas over the Years". We'll forgive the society's other mis-punctuation in the presentation's title just this once.We learnt:
I guess we have Microsoft to blame for the current vogue in representing time as 7:30pm with an extraneous colon... when 7.30 p.m. would be proper
The talk by Denbighshire archaeologist Fiona Gale was entitled "The Hillforts of the Clwydian Range, Excavations and Ideas over the Years". We'll forgive the society's other mis-punctuation in the presentation's title just this once.We learnt:
- It's rare to find so many hillforts (six) in such close proximity
- The hillforts may not have been forts, as such. There was no evidence of any fighting or defending
- Each fort was slightly different, implying that there as co-operation rather than competition between the six
- The hillforts are now believed to be older than those in the south. Whereas previously it was assumed the Clwydian range forts followed those in the south, it seems it was the other way round, with Denbighshire's coming first
- The indigenous people cleared the wooded hills and planted crops—even at altitudes from 1,500 feet above sea level.