Bradley hill fort Bradley hill fort is an Iron Age hill fort . Hill forts were fortified hill - tops , used as settlements or temporary refuges , constructed across Britain during the Iron Age . It is the smallest of the seven hill forts in the county of Cheshire in northern England . It is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument . Background . Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age , roughly the start of the first millennium BC . The reason for their emergence in Britain , and their purpose , has been a subject of debate . It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe , sites built by invaders , or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture . The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain . Deposits of iron ore were located in different places to the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze , and as a result trading patterns shifted and the old elites lost their economic and social status . Power passed into the hands of a new group of people . Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated " [ the forts ] provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress [ of an increasing population ] burst out into open warfare . But I wouldn ' t see them as having been built because there was a state of war . They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed , but this was not the only , or even the most significant , factor in their construction " . Location . Although there are over 1 , 300 hill forts in England , they are concentrated in the south of the country , with only seven in Cheshire . There are two groups of hill forts in the county , each with three members ( Maiden Castle is on its own in the south ) ; Bradley hill fort is the furthest north of the Cheshire hill forts and is close to Helsby and Woodhouses hill forts , both west of the site . Located at , Bradley lies on the central ridge that runs north – south through the county , as do all of the hill forts in Cheshire . Bradley hill fort is surrounded on most sides by higher ground , so whereas other hill forts on the Cheshire central ridge command views of the Cheshire Plain , Bradley ' s views are restricted . A tributary of the River Weaver runs east – west past the north of the site , and the fort was positioned to exploit the stream ' s steep banks for defence . Layout . Covering about , with an enclosed area of about , Bradley is the smallest hill fort in Cheshire . The site was defended by a single bank and ditch , wide from the back of the bank to the outer edge of the ditch . The entrance was probably in the north - east corner where the artificial defences meet the river bank , similar to the entrance of Oakmere hill fort . The position is uncertain as the area has been damaged by ploughing and the addition of modern drainage ditches , obscuring the original features . The site has not been investigated archaeologically .