A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



KNAPTOFT (xlix, 4). In Nichol's Leicestershire 1 two widely divergent 

 plans are given of a supposed camp with extensive defences. The plan of the 

 outer trench takes the form of an irregular isosceles triangle with sides about 

 750 ft., containing a mound 8 ft. high in the rounded apex at the north. 

 Towards the southern base of the area is a quadrangular camp or 'principal 

 entrenchment and fortress' 108 ft. square internally, surrounded with a 

 vallum and fosse, the former with an escarpment of 9 ft., and the latter 10 ft. 

 wide at its base. A tumulus is also depicted north-west of the camp. 



This site became the property of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, 

 to whom the outer trench may be assigned. The domestic defences (see 

 Class G) and modern disturbances of the ground have left but a fragment of 

 the original entrenchments. 



LEICESTER (xxxi, 10). Town walls. The site occupied by the county 

 town is such as would be selected for a fortified position ; the irregular course of 

 the River Soar, with the marsh lands beyond, protected the north and west, 

 and from the east the Willow Brook passes to its confluence with the Soar on 

 the north. We are told that the ' Raw Dykes ' are the remains of the 

 oppidum of ' King Leir,' but the first reliable knowledge of its habitation is 

 of the period of the Roman occupation. 



Ratae, by which name Leicester was known to the Romans, appears to 

 have been a parallelogram in plan, and distinct traces are still left of the 

 ancient boundaries in Millstone Lane and Horsefair Street on the south, 

 Gallowtree Gate and Church Gate on the east, and Sanvey Gate and Soar 

 Lane on the north. It is now considered that there was a western wall 

 extending from Soar Lane on the north to South Gate Street, and that the 

 Jewry Wall is composed mainly of the remains of the West Gate. 8 These 

 boundaries represent the lines of the earliest earthen vallum. 



Under the Saxons the ancient defences of Leicester must have been 

 frequently manned, and probably strengthened, for this town was repeatedly 

 the scene of strife with the Danes. 



LUBENHAM (1, 7). Two miles west from Market Harborough. To the 

 north-east of the village, on the crest of a hill are the fragments of an 

 irregular camp. A broad but shallow agger may be traced, but utilitarianism 

 has conquered antiquities, so mutilating it that no definite description is 

 possible. The entrance was apparently on the slope towards the village. 



It has been suggested that this camp, with that at Farndon in North- 

 amptonshire, were outworks to the camp at Market Harborough. 



MANCETTER. See Witherley. 



MARKET HARBOROUGH (1, 8). In a field on the east of the town, rising 

 gently from the River Welland, vestiges of a camp were visible until 

 the recent growth of the town. Roman pottery and other antiquities have 

 been found here. 



RATBY (xxx, 7) . Five miles west by north from Leicester. * Ratby 

 Burrow,' or ' Bury Camp,' by both of which names it is known, is within a 

 mile west of the village. It is a rectangular camp of single vallum and fosse, 

 situated on ground somewhat high and undulating, but not much higher 

 than its surroundings, the north only having a declivity approaching steep- 

 ness. The area occupied by the camp is over 9 acres ; on the north side the 



1 Vol. iv, i, p. 219. " Roman Leicester,' by G. E. Fox, F.S.A., in the Arch. Journ. vol. xlvi. 



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