ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



Sunderland Bridge. — The moat of Butterby manor-house remains, 

 together with the ancient gateway. The moat, though now dry, was capable 

 of being filled with 1 5 feet of water. 



WoLsiNGHAM : Castle Wood. — The site falls southwards towards a 

 stream, and is bounded on the north by a ditch extending some 120 yards 

 westward from the bank of a small stream, which appears to form the only 

 defence on the south. The work may have been a rectangular enclosure, and 

 on the east and south are low banks, that on the south stopping short some 

 way eastward of the small stream mentioned above. A little south of the 

 north boundary, and towards the west end of the enclosure, is a rectangular 

 trench which may mark the lines of the walls of a building or enclosure now 

 removed. To the east of the site a second small stream runs south-west to 

 the larger stream on the south, but the north ditch stops some way short of it. 



WoLsiNGHAM : Bradley Hall. — An irregular four-sided site enclosed 

 ; by a ditch which remains perfect on the north and west, and 



//"xSw ^" P^'^^ °" *^^ ^^^^' ^^^ ^^ obliterated on the south. The 



// r \-\ Bradley Beck runs in a southerly direction at some 150 yards 



// *''"' 



\\ distance from the west side of the site. In the south-west 



)> part of the area, and probably just within the line of the 



/^ ^^'''""'^ ''*"^W destroyed southern arm of the ditch, are farm buildings 



^J^ ** which are in part ancient. The general fall of the ground 



^'Vo'^Jr y . is to the south, towards the river Wear, 



n „ There are other homestead moats in the county ; see 



Bradley Hau, . . ■' 



WOLSINGHAM. sites marked F on accompanying map. 



ENCLOSURES RAMPARTED AND FOSSED, &c. 



[Class G] 



Bishop Middleham : The Castle. — The site of the castle of Middle- 

 ham is on a bold promontory, approximately in the shape of an isosceles 

 triangle, projecting southwards from the high ridge on which the church 

 is built. The apex of the triangle is to the north, and the sides of the 

 promontory slope steeply to the level ground on the east, south and west, 

 and show little traces of scarping except perhaps on the south, where, at the 

 foot of the slope, a ditch runs east and west. The lines of the walls of a large 

 building show in the turf at the south end of the site, and here and there 

 masonry is exposed. The position is a very strong one, the only easy approach 

 being from the north, at the apex of the triangle. 



Dalton-le-Dale : Dawdon Tower. — The site is a hollow in the west 

 bank of Dawdon Dean, overlooked by higher ground on the north-west and 

 south-west. The site slopes eastward to the bank of the 

 stream, and can never have been of any defensive strength. 

 The ground has been levelled, and the works shown on the 

 Ordnance map, whose outline is here marked by broken lines, 

 do not now exist. 



Dinsdale : Low Dinsdale. — The area enclosed within 

 a bank and ditch is of irregular shape, its greatest diameter 

 being about 800 feet. The site is nearly level, being in the ^■^"■''°'' ■^°"'''^- 

 low meadows on the banks of the Tees, but the ground rises gently on the 



357 



