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THE CAMP OF RISBURY. 

 By FLAVELL EDMUNDS, Esq. 



Locum vallo fosaaque munivit. — Casar. 

 Vallo et fossa circumdedi, castrisciue maximis sepsi.— Ctwro. 



Two miles E. of Ford Bridge station, on the Shrewsbury and Hereford 

 Railway, is situated the camp of Eisbury. Lying apart from the chief modern 

 lines of communication through Herefordshire, it has been overlooked by most of 

 the topographers, or merely mentioned in the briefest of passing references. It 

 is, however, in itself well worthy of a caj-efiil examination by all who would 

 appreciate the liistory of the district, or who would clearly understand the 

 Btormy process through which tliis once vexed border land gradually settled 

 down into the well ordered Herefordshire of our time. Although for the last 

 twelve or thirteen centuries, as it is now, a sparsely peopled tract of country, 

 there being no more parishes and villages in 1868 than there were in 1086, when 

 Domesday Survey was taken, the hilly plateau in the centre of which Kisbury 

 camp stands was important in ancient times as part of the great chain of defences 

 which protected Herefordshire against invaders coming— as most of them did — 

 from the Eastward. A beacon fii-e on Kisbury could be seen and answered from 

 Sutton Walls, and the signal sent successively from it to St. Ethelbert's Camp, 

 Capler, Dinedor, Acombury, and the Graig ; while N.E. the warning flame 

 would be visible at Thornbury Camp, and S. E. at Circutio (now Stretton 

 Grandison) — from whence the "fiei-y message" could be sped to "Wall Hills, near 

 Ledbury, and from thence to the great camp on the Herefordshire Beacon, To 

 the N. another line of camps consisting of Black-caer-dun, Eyton, Gorsey-hill 

 (Pudleston), and Cainham, communicated with the Dinas or fortified British 

 town of Ludlow, which could "speed the message on" by Titterstono and Brosvn 

 Clee to the great camp on Caer Caradoc. 



Although not equal in size to Dinedor or Acombury, and far smaller than 

 the truly "Great" Camp of Credenhill, Risbury Camp contains eight acres, and 

 may be ranked in the second class of the camjis of the district. It seems to 

 have been intended only for use in actual war, having no pools or wells within 

 its enceinte. StiU the comparatively advanced state of military art which it 

 shows, in the almost elaborate nature of its defences, proves that it was 

 accounted a position of greater importance than either its size or its con- 

 venience would imply. 



The secret of the care bestowed on this spot is explained by a single fact : 

 it commanded the Roman road, yet used for the greater part of its extent, 

 which left the Magna and Circutio road where Shelwick toll-bar now stands, 

 passed N. by the Withergins bridge, Sutton, Eodenham moor, Risbury, Humber, 

 to the ford of the Hennor brook at the Street-ford (now Stretford), and thence 

 by Gorsey-hill camp to Cainham and Ludlow. 



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