1899 H. N. WITCHELL — MINCHINHAMPTON CAMPS 55 



(II.) The Danish Camp. 



This is the largest Camp in Gloucestershire, and covers 

 an area of about 300 acres. It consists of a high mound 

 with a ditch on the inside. The mound runs from near 

 " The Box " across the Common to Minchinhampton 

 Park, and formerly extended round the site of the town, 

 as there are remains of the fortifications about a mile to 

 the eastward. 



I consider it to be of Danish origin for the following 

 reasons : — 



I. — There are few, if any, pit-dwellings in or around 

 the Camp. 



2. — Only one fragment of a flint implement has been 

 found by me after careful search in the arable fields in 

 the Camp. 



3. — The mound is outside the ditch, instead of inside 

 as in the Amberley Camp. 



4. — Local tradition, and also the entry in the Saxon 

 Chronicle, point to a great battle with the Danes having 

 been fought here. 



5. — The soil of a great portion of the Camp is of clay, 

 which would not be so healthy for a people who lived in 

 pit-dwellings as a dry porous soil, such as one finds in 

 the sites of other British Camps. 



6. — The great size of the Camp, which measures 

 roughly one mile in length by half-a-mile in breadth : it 

 would have required a large army to defend it. 



In Prof. Ingram's translation of the Saxon Chronicle 

 appears the following : — 



" A.D. 837. This year Alderman Wulfherd fought at 

 Hampton with thirty-three Pirates and after great slaughter 

 obtained the Victory." 



Local tradition points to a great battle with the Danes 

 having been fought here. 



