ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS 



In the following pages the most important earthworks extant in 

 Warwickshire are described under the names of the parishes where they 

 are found, and these, for facility of reference, are placed in alphabetical 

 sequence. The arrangement under parishes has been adopted, to avoid 

 the confusion which has previously been brought about by various writers 

 calling the same remains by different names. 



In order to find the account of any earthwork in a particular 

 district, the map must first be consulted for the name of the parish where 

 it is situated, and reference should then be made to the latter in the text. 



The list does not pretend to be in any sense a complete one ; for 

 the compilation of this much more time would be necessary than is at 

 the writer's disposal. Nevertheless it is hoped that it may serve to give 

 an idea of the field which is open to future explorers, who may, in con- 

 sequence, be attracted to work out the subject in detail. And, further, in 

 view of the rapid destruction of these valuable monuments of the past 

 which is continually in progress, it is also hoped that this article may 

 direct local attention to the existence of these interesting remains, and 

 may thus lead to more care being taken of them in the future. 



The writer begs to thank many who have given him much valuable 

 information and assistance, including Rev. J. Harvey Bloom, Mr. Jethro 

 A. Cossins, Mr. Alfred Hayes, Mr. Howard S. Pearson, Rev. W. H. 

 Payne-Smith, and especially Mr. I. Chalkley Gould. 1 



BARMOOR. See Claverdon. 



BEAUDESERT (by Henley-in-Arden). On a steep hill called 'The 

 Mount,' just east of the parish church of St. Nicholas, are remnants of 

 the earthworks of an ancient castle ; they consist of a moated mount 

 with traces of courtyards defended by ramparts and ditch (see class E, 

 described p. 351). 



' The Mount ' forms a promontory, jutting towards the little river 

 Alne, from a ridge of high ground running north and south ; it rises to 

 an altitude of about 300 feet above sea level. The site is by nature a 

 very strong and commanding one ; from it the Edge Hills and the 

 Malverns may both be plainly seen. The church and the few houses 

 which comprise the village are at the foot of the hill by the side of the 

 stream ; from the church the road winds round the south side of the hill 

 to the entrance of the courtyard on the top of the first elevation. 



1 The plans are drawn to scale on the basis of the 25 inch Ordnance Survey of 1883 ; details are 

 frequently filled in from other sources, sometimes from earlier plans and notes showing features which 

 have since become indistinct and obliterated. The following abbreviations are used to indicate publi- 

 cations referred to in the text, viz. : 



Burgess' Wane. . . = Burgess' Historic Warwickshire (1875). 



Clark's Mil. Arckit. . = Clark's Medieval Military Architecture (1884). 



Dugdale's Warw. . = Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (Coventry ed. 1765). 



Dugdale's Warw. . = Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, with MS. additions by William 

 (Hamper's copy) Hamper, in the British Museum Library. 



Dugdale's Warw. . = Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, with MS. additions by Matthew 

 (Bloxam's copy) Holbeche Bloxam, F.S.A., in Rugby School Library. 



Hutton's B'bam. . = Hutton's History of Birmingham (3rd ed. 1806). 



O.S = Ordnance Survey. 



Timmins's Warm. . = Samuel Timmins's History of Warwickshire (1889). 



Turner's Skaki. Land = Ribton-Turner's Shakespeare's Land (1893). 



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