230 



a large Camp. This Camp, locally known as " The Toots," is 

 situate on a slight elevation, and is formed by a mound and 

 ditch. Rudder states that in his day this Camp was already 

 much disturbed, and although farm buildings and cottages now 

 occupy a considerable part of the enclosing line of intrenchments, 

 enough remains to show it to have been a very fine work. At 

 the south angle the ditch is broad and some twelve feet deep, 

 and has bold yet graceful lines. The ground outside this south 

 part of the Camp is much broken, as if by foundations of build- 

 ings, especially near a fine old tree, called " Battle Elm." There 

 appears to have been a road from this Camp to the hill on which 

 Oldbury Church now stands, and there was until recently a very 

 ancient bridge across the stream. There can be little doubt 

 that these two works were made in connection with the harbour, 

 and that the smaller work which overlooks the Severn, served 

 as a " look-out," or beacon-station. 



ISTo. 56. — The ancient Camp at Vineyard Brake occupies a 

 projecting point of a hill a little to the east of Elburton, it 

 commands a fine view of the Severn. 



No. 57. Plate III, fig. 22. — Near Tytherington a projecting 

 spur of the hill has been taken advantage of for the formation of 

 a Camp, now called " The Castle," or " Castle Hill." In shape it 

 is very irregular, for the greater part conforming to the natural 

 outline of the hill, and having little or no artificial defences 

 where the escarpment is steep ; where the adjoining surface is 

 on a level with the enclosed area of the Camp it is defended' 

 by a single mound and ditch, the mound is in some places 

 still eight feet high from the bottom of the ditch, and 

 there are traces of lime-mortar on the top of the mound, which 

 seems to indicate that a wall once occupied the crest of the 

 mound. 



No. 58. — In Knole Park, a little south of Almondsbury, is 

 another ancient Camp, which Rudder writes of as " a fortifi- 

 cation of a rampire and a double ditch," and Mr. Baker as 

 conforming to the shape of the ground. This Camp commands 

 splendid views of both shores of the Severn and of the country 

 lying beyond the Wye. 



