ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



itCTION At A a 



Barnard Castle. 



Gainford : Barnard Castle. — The castle stands on a fine natural height 

 overlooking the river Tees, the inner ward being about loo feet above the 

 river. Originally it consisted of an enclosure with a maximum length of 

 330 yards, and breadth of 160 yards, running parallel to the river, divided 

 into four wards ; the outer to the south ; the town ward to the east ; and 

 the inner and middle wards in the north-west angle ; the whole being sur- 

 rounded by a large fosse, or dry ditch, and each ward being defended by its 

 own fosse. Of all these works only those belonging to the inner and middle 

 wards now exist. The fosse of the inner 

 ward is a fine work 70 feet wide by 30 feet 

 deep, and the material dug from it has 

 been used to raise the level of the inner 

 ward, which acts as a mount or motte. 

 On the west towards the river the clifF is 

 precipitous, and completes the defences of 

 the inner ward as it formerly did of the 

 now non-existent middle and south wards. 

 The fosses all had ramparts of earth piled 

 up on their inner verge, that is on the 

 side nearest to the great keep-mount ; 

 this feature, and the completeness of 

 the system of defence by deep ditches, 

 or fosses, is well shown in Grose's view.' 

 The plan given by Clark ^ is very unsatis- 

 factory, as, owing to the indefinite shading, it is quite impossible to distinguish 

 between fosses and ramparts, and he gives no indication of the natural rocky 

 defence on Tees side. The earthen ramparts were after a time crowned with 

 walls of masonry which remain in parts, but these relics and those of the 

 castle buildings will be described in the topographical section. 



MiDDLETON St. George : Tower Hill. — A partly natural mount on 

 the high north bank of the Tees, isolated on the north by a small valley, 

 showing traces of scarping on its north and west sides. On the west is an 

 old road known as Pounteys Lane, which descends steeply to the river at a 

 point where it was formerly crossed by a bridge named Pounteys Bridge. On 

 the south-west the site is bounded by the grounds of a modern house, the 

 making of which has destroyed any remains of earthworks on that side. 

 The mount seems to have had a court attached to it, of which only faint 

 remains now exist, but Mr. Wooler informs us that old labourers tell of 

 the levelling of ramparts and the filling of a fosse which once surrounded 

 the mount. The latter is now about 20 feet in height and planted with trees. 

 Mutilated as this earthwork is, enough remains to suggest that here was a 

 stronghold commanding an important ford across the river Tees. 'Tower 

 Hill' is a modern appellation. 



HOMESTEAD MOATS 

 [Class F] 

 Brancepeth : near Crook. — A ditcli running north and south at an 

 obtuse angle joined by a second ditch running south-west. If the site was 



• Grose, Antiquities oj England and (Vaks, i. ed. 1 7 7 2. ' Clark, Mediirval Military Architecture in England, 1 884. 



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