A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



west, where a little stream runs at the bottom of a valley. In shape 

 the stronghold much resembles a pear, with its pointed end towards the 

 west ; the two corners at the eastern end approach the rectangular. The 

 entrenchments enclose an area of about 1 7 acres. 



The defensive earthworks of the camp have now, unfortunately, 

 become very much worn by denudation and have also been sadly muti- 

 lated by man. The fortress was sufficiently striking in appearance in 

 Queen Elizabeth's time to be remarked upon by Camden 1 ; Dugdale, who 

 took notice of but few remains of this kind, described the place 250 years 

 ago as a 'great fortification' ; and even early in the last century, the 

 entrenchments were still formidable looking, consisting of double ram- 

 parts, rising one above the other, with an intervening ditch ; this is 

 shown by a careful plan made in 1822" by Mr. Edward Pretty, drawing- 

 master at Rugby School, which is here reproduced in its main details. 

 The only ancient entrance to the camp was at the western extremity ; it 

 was approached by a ' hollow way ' which curved round from a north- 

 westerly direction ; this was crossed in later days by the present highway 

 from Ratley and Radway, which enters the area of the camp at the west, 

 and runs along in the hollow of its northern fosse, until it quits it again 

 at its north-east corner. 



Dugdale records that ' near unto ' this camp ' in our Memory was 

 found a Sword of Brasse, and a Battaill Axe,' and his MS. notes add to this 

 'with the bones of two men.' 3 He evidently here describes a bronze 

 sword and palstave, relics which point to the considerable antiquity of 

 the earthworks. The camp apparently forms a link in the long chain of 

 prehistoric fortresses, which extends from south to north along the tops 

 of the Cotswolds and the highlands of the Oxfordshire border, and reaches 

 as far as the great entrenchments at Borough Hill near Daventry in 

 Northamptonshire.* 



SECKINGTON (4 miles north-east of Tamworth) Close to this 

 village, and 150 yards north-west of the parish church, are some very 

 perfect little earthworks of the moated mount and court type ; they 

 are much like those at Brinklow, only smaller and with single, instead 

 of double, courtyard adjacent to the mount. 



The works occupy an excellent position on the highest part of the 

 slight elevation upon which the village is located. The area covered by 

 the mount and its courtyard is about 2| acres. The mount itself is a 

 conical hill, truncated at the top ; it is about 30 feet high and 140 to 

 150 feet in diameter at its base; its flat top measures about 50 feet 

 across. Encircling this mount is a ditch, now about 30 feet wide and 

 from 10 to 12 feet deep. To the south and south-east lies the court- 

 yard, crescent-like in shape, and further protecting the mount for about 



1 Camden's Brit. (Gibson ed. 1695), p. 499. 



> Preserved in Dugdale's Warm. (Hamper's copy), p. 389. 



Ibid. p. 389. 



Bloxam in B'ham. Phil. Inst. Trans., vol. iv. no. 16, ; Dugdale's Warm. p. 389; Burgess 

 in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Tram. (1872), p. 82, and in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. (1873), p. 38 ; 

 Turners Stab. Land, p. 337. 



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