Arbury Hill

Arbury Hill stands 225 metres high in the quiet farmland of Northamptonshire. It is nine kilometres southwest of Daventry and marks the meeting point of three river basins: the Nene to the north, east and south, the Cherwell to the south-west, and the Leam to the west and north-west. From the top, Rugby and Coventry appear on the northwest horizon while Northampton lies to the east. The River Nene itself begins in a boggy hollow on the hill’s northwestern slope. On the summit lie the remains of an Iron Age fort enclosed by a square ditch and bank about 200 metres across. The fort once covered twelve acres and is recorded in a land grant of Edmund the Elder as a boundary mark where the parishes of Badby, Dodford and Everdon meet. In 1784 the hill was chosen as one of a series of trig points to measure the Earth’s diameter. A triangulation station still stands at the highest point. A motocross track winds across the eastern slopes, used for competitions several times each year. The hilltop offers wide views on clear days. To the north-east Borough Hill is visible four miles away, while to the south-west Broadway Tower appears thirty miles distant. The landscape stretches away in gentle waves of clay soil and steep gradients, with off-camber turns and small jumps for riders on the track below.