A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



called Wick Lane, half way between Coughton Lodge Farm and the 

 railway station. It is nearly a square, containing about an acre, and with 

 a deep ditch the greater part of the way round and the remains of a 

 vallum outside the ditch ; the moat completely enclosed the area until 

 recent years, when a road leading from the highway to the farm was made 

 across it. 1 



EDGBASTON (near Birmingham.) There are remains of a large 

 rectangular entrenchment, in Metchley Park, at the south-west corner of 

 this parish, and near Selly Oak ; it lies 400 yards west of Metchley Lane ; 

 the Birmingham and Worcester Canal and the Birmingham and West 

 Suburban Railway cross its south-east corner. 



The earthworks now extant are oblong in form, lying north-west 

 by south-east ; they are situated just north of the Bourne brook, on 

 fairly level ground, at an altitude of about 500 feet above the sea. They 

 are much worn and mutilated. Even a century ago, Hutton, in giving 

 an account of them, wrote that though no part was actually obliterated, 

 the fortification was nearly levelled by cultivation. He described the 

 works as then covering about 30 acres, being nearly in the form of a 

 square, each side of which was 400 yards long ; in the centre was a 

 quadrangular platform of about 6 acres, surrounded by three ditches ' at 

 irregular distances from one another ' ; each of these ditches measured 

 ' about 8 yards over.' 2 



Hutton records that 'pieces of armour were frequently ploughed up ' 

 here in his day, ' particularly those of the sword and the battle axe.' A 

 recent cutting was made through the earthworks for the pipes of the 

 Welsh Birmingham Water Supply, but Mr. Pearson informs me that, 

 although careful watch was kept for antiquities, nothing of any interest 

 was found. It may perhaps be mentioned that the camp would not be 

 far away from the now lost track of the ancient Icknield Street through 

 Birmingham. 



FENNY COMPTON (14 miles south-east of Warwick). One of the 

 spurs of the Burton Dassett Hills called Gredenton Hill, half a mile 

 south-west of this village, has its steep sides scarped into a series of 

 artificial terraces. These terraces have every appearance of being the 

 remains of ancient entrenchments which once encircled the summit of 

 the hill, and which have been reduced by the weather and the action of 

 the plough to their present condition. It has sometimes been argued 

 that they are merely ' linchets ' resulting from repeated ploughing of 

 the hillside ; but a similar levelling of ramparts into ditches, producing 

 the effect of terraces, is not infrequent in connection with ancient camps ; 

 it may be seen, for example, at Brownsover in this county. The top of 

 Gredenton Hill, which has an altitude of about 650 feet above sea level, 

 is a strong and commanding position, such as would early be seized 

 for fortification by settlers in the district ; two little streams, now much 



Burgess in Arcfi. Journ. vol. xxxiii. (1876), p. 373. 

 1 Hutton' B'tam. pp. 461-3. 



374 



