ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



natural sandstone artificially raised some 6 feet, surrounded on three sides by 

 a ditch, while at the bottom of the steep portion of the hillside a ditch 

 with the ballast thrown outward to form a rampart has been made ; 

 this ditch in its present form appears to have been all that ever existed. 

 Thus the north side, which by nature is of some strength, is artificially 

 defended. But on the south side, where the high land continues and gently 

 rises, there is now no trace of further entrenchments ; a comparatively 

 modern house stands about the position marked on the plan, with its gardens, 

 etc., and a farmyard exists on the south-west of the mound. Of course other 

 earthworks may have defended the position on the south, but it is more likely 

 that this portion was protected by a stone wall. Thurnham Castle in Kent 

 has a somewhat similar mound, but the court is defended by a stone wall, a 

 good part of which still remains. 



SuLGRAVE Castle (5 miles N.N.W. of Brackley). — This small mote 

 castle stands in a field close by the church, on a tongue of land jutting out 

 eastward some 520 feet above sea level. On the south-east and north there 

 are slight gullies, but the position has no true natural defence as the village 

 lies between the castle and what slight fall there is in the ground. The 

 ramparts have a good command on the east, but on the west the land is 

 higher. One and a quarter miles north-west is the somewhat similar castle 

 of Culworth, which should be compared and considered with this, the two 

 being evidently of the same date and built for the same purpose. 



The form of the enclosure appears to be a rough circle or square, but as it 

 is not in a very perfect state of preservation it may not represent its original shape. 

 The entrenchments consist of a ramparted keep only, which can in no sense 



\ .---■\ ,• -^ __ be called a mound, though 



•• — ••— -^' """^ "•-•..,_ it answers to the mound 



of such mote castles as 

 Lilbourne in the north of 

 i% + ""«" --y the same county. No 



'4^TMs "'"%" "" ""'^' ""' doubt when the castle was 



^^*^\^'' / in its original condition the 



7 .c.c. ornrr / ram Dart was of some coU" 



? "y> t.o tp » / r 



siderable height, and the 



ditch some 4 feet deeper. 



f</ There are no remains of 



f' stonework visible, and 



/ though it is possible such 



/ once existed, it is more 



SuLGRAVE Castle. probable that the earthen 



defences (formed of the natural stone subsoil broken small and mixed with the 



topsoil) formed the means of defence, strengthened perhaps with timber. 



Neither are there any visible remains of further entrenchments forming 



a courtyard. On the west is a sloping causeway to the enclosed portion so 



formed as not to expose the centre to the attack of an enemy on the outside, 



which may be the original entrance, but such an entrance is unusual with 



fortifications of this type. The ditch on the north-east side is all but filled 



up, the wall of the churchyard cutting it, but undoubtedly the ditch was once 



complete on all sides as shown on the plan. 



407 



N. 



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