Combs 



Farm, *' 



\ 



SCALE OF FEET 



IOO 200 30O 



COMBS FARM CAMP, FARNSFIELD. 



ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



elliptical camp, commanding the ancient road, the ' Stone Street,' from 

 Nottingham to Bawtry, that passes south and north-west of its site. 



Major Rooke, writing 

 in 1785, says : 



At a farm on an emi- 

 nence called the ' Combs,' 

 a Roman camp is plainly 

 made out, the ditch and 

 vallum are perfect at the , 

 west end and in most part ' 

 of the south side. The ''%''''/,* <i t 

 south-eastern part is oc- < *'''<5}'''ffif'fr.f' 



1111 i *'^ ji. x" ^rft*\\ 



cupied by the house and 

 garden ; here I found frag- 

 ments of Roman bricks and 

 tiles turned up in plough- 

 ing. About fifty yards to 

 the north of the camp is 



a circular vallum of earth near forty yards in diameter, part of which has been lately destroyed 

 by the plough. The camp, which is fully 250 yards long and seventy yards wide, commands 

 an extensive view NW. over Sherwood Forest. The great road from Southwell to Mansfield 

 goes through Farnsfield between this and the Hexgreave camp. 1 



About 3 acres of ground are enclosed by the fosse, in which several 

 weapons were found in the beginning of the eighteenth century ; and some 

 ninety years later two small implements of war resembling battle-axes, but of 

 diminutive size, made of copper, and cast in a mould, were found near these 

 works in a bed of ashes 2 ft. beneath the surface ; one of these, illustrated 

 by Major Rooke, is a bronze socketed and fluted celt. 



NOTTINGHAM : THE CASTLE AREA AND PRECINCTS are situated on a 

 sandy rock which towards the south forms a precipitous promontory. 



The origin of this fortress possibly dates from King Edward's visit to the 

 town in 924, when the Old Borough (dealt with in Class B) may have 

 existed ; and he ' commanded a burh to be built on the south side of 

 the river, over against the other, and the bridge over the Trent, between the 

 two burhs.' 3 No evidence remains to show that this was done, or that 

 the promontory fortress supplied the royal demand, though it seems impossible 

 that so commanding a position could have been neglected by former 

 warriors. 



The natural fastness, precipitous on the southern side and largely so 

 on the western, was strengthened artificially by a fosse and steep escarpment 

 over it which ran the whole length of the cliff edge. On the north and 

 east the lines are wholly artificial, but of enormous proportions, being hewn 

 out of the solid rock ; this entrenchment divided the promontory from the 

 main-land, which slopes downward to the site of the old entrenched town on 

 the east. 



The plan consists of four courts, sub-divisions of the original prehistoric 

 enclosure, three of which from the time of William I to that of Edward I 

 were utilized for and absorbed by the royal castle ; the fourth remained an 

 open field to become the camping ground of Charles I in 1642, in the midst 

 of which, ' on a flat and round spot,' now obliterated, he erected his standard 



1 Arch, ix, 200. 



1 Anglo-Saxon Chron. A. 924. The site of the burh on south side may possibly be identified with 

 Micklesborough Hill 



