A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



for some miles on all sides. Ring Hill in Essex and Badbury in Berkshire 

 are much of the same shape and build as Hunsbury, though rather larger; 

 Whelpley Hill in Buckinghamshire is almost exactly the same in shape, 

 slightly smaller, though apparently lacking the ditch, but as the rampart 

 of Whelpley Hill is all but levelled by the plough the ditch may have 

 been obliterated. Hunsbury is named on the Ordnance Survey (one-inch 

 scale) 'Danes Camp,' but upon what authority is not stated. A green lane 

 running from the east makes straight for the opening on the south-east, 

 and then curves southward to continue west ; this lane may be a portion 

 of the Welshmans (strangers) Road which is seen in the west. A few 

 hundred feet to the east is what looks like a rampart ; but as the London 

 and North- Western Railway Company's line tunnels under the hill close by 

 (as seen by the ventilating shafts) and great heaps of ballast from the tunnel 

 have been deposited close to this ' rampart,' probably the ' rampart ' is part of 

 this waste. 



Newbottle (Charlton Hamlet) : Rainsborough^ or 'Charlton Camp' 

 (3I miles W. by S. of Brackley). — This stronghold is not in a very perfect 

 state of preservation, but like many others in the county of Northampton has 

 been greatly interfered with ; hence it is not easy to judge of the actual mode 

 of entrenching in the original plan. It stands upon ground some 430 feet 

 above sea level and 80 feet above a stream half a mile north-west which 

 flows in a valley. The position of the stronghold has no natural defence 



except the very slight fall to the stream 

 above mentioned ; hence it cannot be 

 considered as a hill fort, the land generally 

 in the district being of about the same 

 height. 



The entrenchment consists of one 

 ditch with the ballast thrown inward to 

 form one powerful rampart, and in places, 

 ,^.*^-. .-^-; if not on all sides, outward as well, to 



%%^\ c /W/*"*'''* form a second rampart. The inner ram- 



%?'/,%^>„ ^.MoJ^t^^'j/ part, now about 1 6 feet in its highest part 



. -i^^ .^ '''''''/"ilnVm-m"'^^^^^ abovc the ditch, is in a fair state of pre- 



V., ■?» ,; So •-•« - servation, and is formed out of the natural 



RaIn^^^^h OR 'CHARtroN Camp.' soil and subsoil, which is soft stone, piled 



loosely ; but about i o feet above the 

 ditch, where the banking has been peeled off, a rough wall is revealed, 

 formed by the laying of small slabs of the native stone to make an outer 

 rough perpendicular line ; this is probably part of the original work, 

 and was not meant to be an exposed wall, but was intended to strengthen 

 the ramparts. Judging from the decayed state of all the entrenchments 

 in this part of Northamptonshire, formed from this stony subsoil, the stone 

 does not make an enduring rampart such as is formed of chalk in Wiltshire, 

 Dorsetshire, and elsewhere. The ditch is of no great depth in its present 

 state, being about 7 feet deep from the outside in its most perfect place, 

 where once it was probably 10 to 12 feet deep; the base of the counterscarp 

 is unusually wide. It is hard to determine whether there was a perfect 



1 y.C.H. Northants, i. 152, 153. 

 400 



