A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



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Castle Dykes ' Camp.' 



the position. On the north-east the hill juts out for a short space, and there 

 is a dip which might or might not be a ditch ; if it is a ditch it hardly adds 

 any defence to the hill summit. 



RECTANGULAR CAMPS 

 [Class C] 



Farthingstone : Castle Dykes ' Camp ' (4^ miles S.E. of Daventry). — 



This can be called nothing but the remnant of a stronghold that once may 



have been of some considerable interest and 

 strength ; it is now practically destroyed ; even 

 of that much shown on the accompanying 

 plan (made from the Ordnance Survey), only 

 the north side and a few feet of the return 

 south are left, the rest having been ploughed 

 level, except that there is a faint track of the 

 once existing entrenchments. Of what these 

 entrenchments actually consisted it is not now 

 possible to tell, but that there was a ditch and 

 exterior rampart on all sides may be taken 

 as fairly certain from what is left, and an 

 inside rampart, if not an outside ditch, is 

 also probable ; one or both of these would 

 make a powerfully defended enclosure. 

 The chief interest of this ' camp ' is its nearness to the extremely 



important mote castle, within 



a quarter of a mile on the 



north-east, called Castle Dykes, 



which consists, as hereafter 



shown, of four enclosures 



dating probably from Norman 



times. 



Irchester ^ ( 1 1 miles E.S.E. 



of Wellingborough). — This en- 

 closure is formed out of ground 



sloping from 200 feet above 



sea level on the south, to the 



river Nene on the north, some 



150 feet above sea level. The 



entrenchment, which appears 



in its perfect state to have 



consisted of one rampart only, 



as at Uphall in Essex, and 



Egbury in Hampshire, is now 



all but levelled, as will be seen 



by the sections. The whole 



of the south, and the southern 



half of the west rampart is 



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1 y.C.H. Northants, i. 177. 



402 



Irchester. 



