ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 







HiNTON Manor House. 



tirst on the north-east a small oblong platform surrounded on all four sides by 

 a ditch, round which the stream which forms the north-east part of the ditch 

 was caused to flow ; this platform, which in no sense can be called a mound, 

 answers to the ■%. 



mound of such 

 mote castles as 

 Fotheringhay in 

 the north of the 

 county, and ap- 

 parently upon this 

 stood that portion 

 of the manorhouse 

 which represented 

 the keep. South- 

 west of this is a 

 rather larger en- 

 closure which 

 formed the court- 

 yard or bailey, banked or ramparted within, more for the purpose of keeping 

 out the water than an enemy. This enclosure is surrounded by a ditch or 

 wet moat. Depressions in the rampart towards the keep and also north-west 

 rather seem to imply that the entrances were at these points, bridges probably 

 crossing the moat. 



The south-east side of the whole work, where the ground falls towards 

 the meeting place of the streams, has a fairly powerful bank much needed, as 

 will be seen by the sections, to form a water level to the moat. The outside 

 bank to the smaller enclosure, cut by the section E-F, though less needed, 

 was apparently for the same purpose of restraining the water, as there is now 

 no rampart on the remaining portion of that side or upon the entrance south- 

 west, though there is an imaginary outer-scarp with a fall of a few inches as 

 shown in section A— B. The subsoil is a soft stone. The position has no 

 command of the surrounding country. 



RoTHERSTHORPE Berry (3 J miles S.W. of Northampton). — This 

 enclosure, called locally The Berries, is curious for two reasons : first, 



while the base of the entrenchments on the north 

 Xllli''^'''>^''li!i?'% ^"d \^^i\. is 96 feet, that on the east and possibly 

 ■> '""''■"4*^ south is only 70 feet ; and secondly, the earth- 

 ' o-^W work is apparently a village stronghold, near 

 the church and surrounded by the houses, as 

 if it was a mote castle, and yet unlike the usual 

 types of such ; for a Saxon or earlier strong- 

 ■*■"*"'* „ „ hold however it is rather small. Standing on 



RoTHERSTHORPE BeRRY. , , , ^ , i i • 1 1 • 1 



level ground 245 leet above sea level, with higher 

 land on the west and south, and slightly lower land on the north and east, it 

 partially commands the neighbouring country for about a mile. The south 

 side is more or less destroyed to make room for cottages and their gardens. 

 The whole work in its original condition must have been of some con- 

 siderable power. The entrenchments stand in a field and are used for 







% 'OS «<a v^ 





%»r 



pasture. 

 2 



417 



53 



