A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



made in the year 1837 shows the outer vallum encircling about two- 

 thirds of the camp, and another, made probably a few years later, marks 

 this outer rampart as intact along the whole of the northern and eastern 

 sides. 1 Burgess records that a subterranean chamber was discovered 

 within the area of the entrenchment some years prior to a visit which he 

 paid there in 1872 ; he suggests that this might have been for the storage 

 of grain, as was the practice in the raths in Ireland. 2 



As far as can be judged from outward appearances only, these 

 remains would seem to correspond with the class of earthwork described 

 above under letter B ", and in various particulars they resemble the cele- 

 brated camp excavated at Hunsbury near Northampton. 3 

 BOURNBROOK. See Edgbaston. 



BRAILES ( 12 miles south-east of Stratford-on-Avon). At a height 

 of nearly 500 feet above the sea level, within the village of Upper 

 Brailes and three-quarters of a mile north-west of the magnificent 



church of St. George belonging to 



.^\\\\\\\l\\\\lWWHHlli Lower Brailes, is a detached artificial 



r mount surrounded by entrenchments 

 and called the ' Castle Hill.' 



These earthworks lie upon the 

 southern slope of a considerable ele- 

 vation which forms an eastern outlier 

 of the great Brailes Hill rising upon 

 M|(||(I[()(1 the other side of the high road; 



.v\\\v though not upon the actual top of the 



ridge, the site is a commanding one 

 and overlooks the valley containing 

 the lower village and the country be- 

 yond. The present remains, which 



BRAILES. are evidently much worn and altered, 



SCALE OFPEET consist mainly of a central mount, 



? '? 12f 2? which has a flat top some 80 to 90 



feet in diameter; this mount is sur- 

 rounded by earthworks in the form of an irregular oval ; beyond these 

 again are further banks encircling the area upon three sides, but absent 

 towards the east. The entire works cover nearly 3 acres. Mr. Burgess 

 describing the site says : ' The Castle Hill is separated from the adjacent 

 highlands by a valley which appears to have been a natural gap enlarged 

 by the hand of man ; the adjacent hill is also fortified by terraces rising 

 one above another and more apparent on the south side.' 4 



In the present eroded and altered state of the earthworks it is diffi- 



1 See drawings in Dugdale's Warw. (Bloxam's copy). 



Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 86, and in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Jour*. 



The only antiquities which are known to have been found here are two large iron cannon-balls 

 which were unearthed near the farmhouse ; possibly they fell during one of the numerous fights around 

 Kemlworth castle m the middle ages, or when the troops marched to Meriden in the troubles of 1745. 



Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 82. 



358 



