ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



The gently undulating contours of Suffolk provide no such heights as 

 were chosen for the sites of hill fortresses by a primitive people, and conse- 

 quently no such strongholds are found in the county. The reason for the 

 paucity of earthworks capable of identification w^ith a very early people must 

 be found in the adaptability of the soil for agriculture ; the greater part of 

 the county is under tillage, and it is one of the finest corn-growing districts in 

 England. To the plough, then, may be ascribed the destructive influence 

 that has spared so few of those unrecorded landmarks. Some, indeed, may 

 unknowingly be extant, incorporated into later moated sites. Possibly this 

 may be the case with the works at Chevington and Wattisham, but it can 

 only be suggested by a study of the entrenchments, and in no wise proven. 



Similar forces have wrought havoc with the military works raised during 

 the Roman occupation, for excepting the camp on Clare Common we look in 

 vain for any definite earthwork that may be included under Class C. Burgh, 

 Dunwich, and Walton were strongholds for the defence of the Saxon shore ; 

 the last two have been swallowed by the sea, and Burgh Castle, in the 

 northern extremity of the county, is a well-defined Roman work, but only a 

 very small part of its earthen defences remains. Suffolk, however, is not 

 entirely denuded of signs of Roman entrenchments, and it is marvellous that 

 after centuries of cultivation five camps of rectangular plan may with care be 

 traced. At Stowlangtoft and Burgh (near Woodbridge) are double entrench- 

 ments ; at Ashbocking, Bredfield, and Brettenham are traces of single en- 

 trenchments ; the valla have disappeared, having been ploughed into the 

 fosses, which are abnormally widened and almost filled to the surface in the 

 process, but on these sites are found tesserae, pottery, and oyster-shells. 



It is interesting to observe how ancient ramparts have been utilized 

 wherein to build early churches, as may be seen at Burgh St. Peter, South 

 Elmham St. Cross, where it is called the ' Minster Yard,' and Stowlangtoft 

 St. George. 



When this district became part of the province of East Anglia the 

 Suthfolc were severely disciplined by foes both at home and from abroad. 

 Their struggles against absorption by the kingdom of Mercia in the 7th 

 century may have led to the construction of those stupendous dykes, the 

 principal of which was known as ' Devil's Dyke ' and ' St. Edmund's Dyke,' 

 and although it is beyond our limits — being in Cambridgeshire — it may be 

 suggested that, with the great fosse to the west of the huge vallum, it was 

 made for the protection of the people resident in the country under our 

 consideration against an inland foe. 



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