ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



Red worth, Toft Hill, near Evenwood, The Castles, North Bedburn, and 

 perhaps Rowley Castle Steads, are or were the principal examples. 



C. Though many rectangularly formed camps are of Celtic origin, the 

 most interesting are those of the Roman period the period which brings us 

 into touch with history. Some few hundred years ago an observer could 

 have seen in this county some fine examples of Roman castrametation, but 

 little is left now of three out of the four stations which guarded the Watling 

 Street ; Piercebridge, Binchester, and Ebchester show little evidence of 

 Roman occupation, but happily more has been spared at Lanchester. For 

 traces of the imperial rulers at Chester-le-Street and South Shields one must 

 look under, rather than above, ground. Poor as are the remains, except at 

 Lanchester, much might be said of these Roman stations, but it will be 

 better deferred to the chapter on the Roman Remains. 



Were we attempting chronological sequence it would be necessary to 

 dwell upon the great gap in our island story, as told by its earthworks, in the 

 period following the departure of the Roman legions. Angle and Dane 

 have left no fortress-evidence in this county, for though tradition styles 

 some works ' Danish,' such attribution was probably due to the natural habit 

 of calling a mysterious place of unknown age by the name of the last known 

 enemy when not by that of the arch enemy of all mankind ! It is an 

 open question whether many * homestead moats ' are not the sites of early 

 Angle house-places, but, leaving them for the moment, we pass to the 

 interesting series of strongholds classed as 



D and E. Artificial, or partly artificial, defensive mounts, with fosses 

 around them, abound in England, most being provided with one or more 

 courts or baileys attached to them. Much discussion has arisen as to their 

 date, but a majority of the archaeological world is inclined to accept the 

 theory of Norman origin, though some of these works appear to have 

 existed in the time of Edward the Confessor, and fossed mounts without 

 courts may be possibly earlier. It must not be forgotten that when first 

 thrown up, these high mounts of earth were necessarily incapable of sustaining 

 the weight of stone structures, and must therefore have been dependent upon 

 wooden defences such as are shown on the Bayeux tapestry. Durham Castle, 

 Barnard Castle, and possibly others were originally of this type, but by far 

 the most striking example of such an earthwork is that at Bishopton, where 

 the great mount, artificially raised some 38 to 40 feet, is the principal feature 

 remaining of the castle of Roger Conyers, Constable of Durham in the 

 twelfth century. 1 



F. Homestead moats were usually constructed by the simple expedient 

 of digging a surrounding wide fosse, or ditch, and throwing the material 

 inwards, thus raising the island, or enclosed space, above the level of the 

 adjacent land ; occasionally we find the earth piled up on the inner verge 

 of the fosse to form an additional defence against foes. Some of these 

 enclosures are divided by ditches or water moats into two or more islands; 

 but for these, as for the more simple forms, we must look more to the 

 rich pasture-lands of England, which are not a prevailing characteristic of 

 the county of Durham. Here we notice but few true homestead moats, a 

 fact which, assuming the correctness of the attribution of the origin of such 



1 Of claw D (simple mount forts with fosse) we do not find a reliable example in the county. 

 I 345 44 



