ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



Mansfield is called Winny Hill, on and around which are the remains of 

 a camp. On the crown of the hill the camp follows the natural line, but on 

 the east side, C, the vallum appears to have gone up the hill, where a 

 hedge has been planted upon it, and on the south side, at D, it apparently 

 turned down by the side of a sunk road, which, at 300 ft. to the east, 

 terminates at a brook. 



At the base of the hill on the north-west side is a double vallum and 

 double fosse extending about 160 yds. The inner vallum rises 4 ft. 

 from the foot of the hill and descends nearly 8 ft. into a fosse 6 ft. 

 wide at the bottom ; the second vallum, 1 2 ft. in thickness, is of the same 

 height as the first, and the outer fosse, slightly wider than the other, is 

 4 ft. deep. 



Outside these entrenchments is the road A, the 'Leeming Lane' the 

 'Leeming Street' of Mansfield which appears to have been a branch of an 

 ancient street that divided the watershed of the rivers Maun and Leen by the 

 ridge of Robin Hood Hills and to have passed Mansfield on its way to 

 the ford of Retford for Littleborough and Lincoln. B is a road from Mans- 

 field to Clipston, Edwinstowe, and Ollerton, which now passes between the 

 foot of the hill and the entrenchments. 



From the top of the hill a view is commanded of all the neighbouring 

 camps and roads, especially the great camp in Pleasley Park, county 

 Derby. 



NOTTINGHAM, ST. MARY'S HILL. The site of the old English borough 

 or town of Nottingham is, owing to being built over for many centuries, not 

 indicated on the Ordnance maps as a feature that can be scheduled under 

 class B. Nevertheless it is known to have been an important area defended 

 by fosse and vallum : the south line is a precipitous rock rising from 

 the meadow to the height of nearly 100 ft. Its western line is still the 

 boundary of two parishes, the old and new boroughs of Domesday. Those 

 of the north and east are preserved by existing inner and outer lines of 

 streets that bore, as records testify, descriptive names implying walls 

 (earthen) or defences. 



The town was intersected by two ancient roads. Through its long axis, 

 east and west, ran the old trackway or ridgeway bordering the Trent valley, 

 and through its short axis almost north and south is the Stone Street, 

 Broad Street, or York Street of Nottingham, passing in its way north to 

 Bawtry, Saltersford, and the Coniswath (King's Ford). South of the town 

 this road takes a short rectangular bend, which is a sunken way in the rock, 

 by which to ascend from the meadow to the high level of the camp ; the 

 straight line of the road, from the precipitous character of the rock, being 

 impracticable. 



A vallum and fosse surrounded the north, west, and east sides, 

 the clifF forming the southern defence, but all have for long been built 

 over ; rebuilding operations however occasionally expose the ancient fosse. 

 At the south-west corner, when cut through by the Great Central 

 Railway, it was found to be 1 6 ft. wide and 7 ft. deep, its section being nearly 

 semi-circular. 



When the central part of the northern fosse was exposed a few years ago, 

 two small objects of solid earthenware were found, modelled on the lines of 

 i 297 38 



