298 Erlestoke and its Manor Lords. 
To the same period may be ascribed the “ Castle,” which, though 
no longer visible, existed as late as the seventeenth century, as is 
shown by the references to it that are found in a manor court 
book of that time. In the schedules of tenants’ holdings the 
location of the various strips of which these were made up involves 
the mention of the Castle several times as on the West Hill, in an 
elevated position not far from Marditch (a part of the Hillwood), 
and near the Coulston boundary, and it is so probable as to be 
certain that it was on the highest point of the hill and that its 
disappearance is due to the fact that a large area there has been 
quarried out for chalk. Like most of the castles of the Wiltshire 
downs, this must have been a place of refuge to which the families 
and the cattle of the tribe could be taken for safety when threatened 
by attack from a neighbouring tribe, and the fact that the elevation 
at this point (729 feet) is the highest between Bratton and Milton 
makes it a likely situation to be chosen for such a purpose. It is 
conjectured that at this period the vale was covered by a dense 
forest except those parts of it which were lake or marsh, and that 
the hill only was open to cultivation and comparatively free from 
the attacks of wild beasts. The traces of an ancient settlement in 
Imber parish and close to the southern end of Erlestoke parish, 
and the many tumuli close by that testify to its importance, suggest 
the possibility that it was from here that adventurous spirits set 
out towards the vale and laid the foundations of the parishes of 
Erlestoke and its neighbours. 
Two thousand years later the Romans had invaded Britain and 
had conquered the Belg, the tribe then occupying this part of 
the country, who settled down after a stubborn resistance to a 
peaceful existence under Roman rule. A large number of Roman 
coins have been and are continually being found on the “Sands,” 
to the north-west of the village, where the spade and the plough 
expose them, and it is recorded by an antiquarian who wrote a 
short account of Erlestoke at the middle of the eighteenth century 
that many had been found on the “Sharp” nearer the hill The 


‘MS. 115, Society of Antiquaries. 
