A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



works to Anglian days,^ confirms the evidence of the place-names of the 

 county which points to little early occupation. Among the simple homestead 

 moats of Durham may be mentioned High Shipley, Holmside Hall, Bradley 

 Hall, and Butterby. 



G. — Many of these more complex, moated, and ramparted enclosures 

 were the sites of defended houses or castles in medieval days, and their 

 comparative abundance in proportion to earlier forms is noteworthy. Even 

 such massive stone structures as Raby Castle depended to a large extent upon 

 a deep and wide surrounding moat for protection. Castle works, such as the 

 hardly-traceable remains at Stockton, those at Witton and others, show the 

 same reliance on moats for defence. The works at Middle Friarside, Chester 

 le Street, form a typical example of this class of earthwork, and Low Dinsdale 

 was probably another, though on a much larger scale. 



H. — Of village sites protected by walls, ramparts, or fosses, we find few in 

 the county ; probably Archdeacon Newton was one, and Low Throston, in 

 the parish of Hart, may have been another, but the most interesting is that 

 much obliterated, defended site of a supposed Anglian village near Castle 

 Eden. 



X. — Because there is much doubt as to their origin, rather than that their 

 form is uncommon, we place those curious little ' camps ' on Cockfi.eld Fell 

 under this head. Their close proximity to one another is sufficiently unusual 

 to warrant classification as works which fall under none of the previous 

 headings. It has been thought that these, and the three little ' camps ' at 

 Eastgate, near Stanhope, may date only from the time of the thirteenth or 

 fourteenth-century wars between England and Scotland, but this is very 

 doubtful. 



The story which the Durham earthworks tell, confirmed as it is by the 

 collateral evidence of 'finds,' may be briefly summarized. In neolithic days 

 the district was wild and to a large extent unoccupied ; in the bronze 

 age clearings took place here and there providing for a very sparse population, 

 which hardly increased in number in the early-iron period; with the advent 

 of the Romans came their great roads across the desolate land, five or six 

 military stations were built and the legions passed frequently on their way ; but 

 there is no evidence of civilizing influences away from the roads, and the 

 country generally remained in a wild condition. The early Anglian cared 

 not for it, and though the late Saxon and Dane settled on parts, probably 

 it was not much populated till the rise of the power of the cliurch, when as 

 the domain of the bishops of Durham it became more and more cleared and 

 settled. Then arose the mount and court feudal strongholds, and probably 

 those works classed under H, as centres of settlements and manors. 



PROMONTORY FORTRESSES 

 [Class A] 



Brancepeth : Stockley Beck. — This nameless enclosure, situated a 

 little to the west of Watling Street, is formed by two streams which join at 

 the apex of a triangle, the base, or third side, being defended by a rampart 

 and fosse, now partly destroyed by a colliery," but originally nearly 900 yards 



' Wc arc not able to lubstantiatc this attribution, and at present regard it as tentative. 



' Much of the northern portion, south of the colliery, has now been levelled and ploughed over. 



