pictures. Quarrying also took place at various sites on the hills, including Maiden Castle from the 17th century. Sandstone was extracted for building, and sand for use as a scouring agent. An iron rock-splitting wedge dating from the 17th century was found during excavations of Maiden Castle. Mad Allen's Hole, a cave on the southerly Bickerton Hill, is believed by some to be the location of "Allenscomb's Cave" in which John Harris, "the English Hermit", lived for 46 years in the 18th century. According to a pamphlet of 1809, Harris was a man of property from Handley, who embraced a hermit's life when his parents refused him permission to marry the woman of his choice. He first inhabited a cave in nearby Carden Park, moving to Allenscomb's Cave in the 1760s. Recent research has, however, cast doubt on the identification of Mad Allen's Hole with Allenscomb's Cave. Unlike the cave in Carden Park, no material dating to the 18th century has been discovered at Bickerton, and the name "Mad Allen's Hole" originated in the late 19th century, when the cave was occupied by an eccentric known as Mad Allen. In the early 19th century, the Bloody Bones caves on the northerly hill were occupied by brigands, who terrorised the surrounding countryside, stealing cheese from local farms and plundering graves, as well as selling sand for cleaning. Seven were captured and executed in around 1834. The Droppingstone Well, immediately north of the Raw Head summit, bears a plaque dated 1861. A photograph of 1910 shows the well in use by locals. 20th–21st century The area around Maiden Castle was used for military training exercises during the 20th century, which included digging numerous two-man slit trenches. The heathland of the southerly hill went unmanaged from the 1940s until 1983, when of land were acquired by the National Trust; the trust's holding was extended by in 1991. Much of the southerly hill and the western escarpment of the northerly hill were notified as two separate Sites of Special Scientific Interest in 1979. The Sandstone Trail long-distance footpath opened in 1974; it then started in Duckington, immediately south of the southerly hill. The Sandstone Trail Race was launched three years later. A 2008 proposal to construct a 60-metre wind-monitoring mast adjacent to Bickerton Hill met with local protest, and was rejected by Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council. Geography, geology and climate The two Bickerton