ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



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church. It occupies a portion of some high land 450 feet above sea level, 

 though only about 100 feet above the lowest land in the neighbourhood, 

 in a fairly commanding position, except on the east and north-east, where 

 the higher land continues. The oval-shape keep is of small dimensions, 

 once strongly defended by a powerful rampart and ditch, not now in a 

 perfect state of preservation ; the section A-B is taken at its most perfect 

 part. This keep cannot in any sense be called a mound, though it answers 

 the purpose of the mound in mote castles of the type of Sibbertoft in the 

 same county, as the centre is 3 feet lower than the ground outside the ditch 

 on the east. Roddenbury Castle, near Frome, in 

 Somerset, and Knocks Bridge Castle, near Staplehurst 

 in Kent, are built on much the same principle. The 

 earthworks are of turf and free from underwood, and 

 are on private property. 



The outer enclosure shown on the plan must be %j4'^rs;::rirl;;;;-£!:^°i|^ 

 taken as only a rough idea as to what once existed ; the "--^^:::Sf 



form is fairly correct, but the entrenchments are very slight Long Buckey Castle. 

 and rather vague ; there are also slight traces of further works on the south. 

 The land falls gently to the south and south-west, but forms no natural defence. 

 Farthingstone : Castle Dykes (4! miles S.E. of Daventry). — This is 

 a mote castle in an exceedingly fine and perfect condition, of an interesting 

 type, though unfortunately the three enclosures on the south are now thickly 



matted over with underwood, nettles, etc., and 

 so the beauty of the work cannot be seen as 

 it would be if the ramparts and ditches were 

 exposed and used for grazing sheep. The 

 property is private, but the owners for many 

 centuries are to be congratulated upon the 

 care with which they have preserved the work 

 in such perfect condition. 



The castle stands upon land some 500 feet 

 above sea level, and has, or would have, if the 

 bushes were not there, a good command of 

 the north-east generally. The entrenchments are 

 formed out of the subsoil, which is sandstone, 

 with no visible signs of artificial stonework. 

 The castle consists of four enclosures, a circular 

 keep supported by courts east and west, and a 

 large court on the north-north-west. The cir- 

 cular keep is distinctly a ramparted enclosure, 

 and not a mound such as those found at Sib- 

 bertoft in the same county, and Brinklow, in Warwickshire, though answering 

 the same purpose ; it is rather of the same class as the keeps of Old Sarum, 

 Wiltshire ; New Buckenham, Norfolk ; Roddenbury Castle, Somerset ; 

 the so-called ' Csesar's Camp,' near Folkestone, Kent ; and that earthwork 

 four miles east-by-north of Bedford, which has been regarded by some as a 

 Roman amphitheatre, by others as a Danish camp, but is no doubt, like 

 the others, the keep of a mote castle of a special form. The approach 

 was probably from the west yard by means of a bridge. 



2 409 52 





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Castle Dykes. 



