SECTIONS IN 1834, HAMPER 



A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



Unfortunately these important remains have suffered much in 

 modern times at the hands of man. At the end of the eighteenth 

 century the ramparts were described by Hutton as in tolerable preserva- 

 tion ; l as late as 1831 they were still traceable all round, 2 and in 1834, 

 when Hamper made a plan of them, 3 they were perfect for three-fourths 

 of the distance, and traceable further. But between 1865 and 1871, 

 several hundred yards of the banks were thrown into the ditches below 

 by the occupier of the land ; and by 1882 only about 300 yards of the 

 ramparts at the southern end of the camp remained intact, together 

 with a few remnants around the northern side. 4 In 1872 the defences 



at the south end 

 were described by 

 Burgess as consist- 

 ing of a rampart, 20 

 feet high in parts 

 (measured from the 

 bottom of the fosse), 

 and about 40 to 50 

 feet in breadth at its 

 base ; outside this 

 was a ditch, beyond 

 which was a second 

 rampart, about half 

 the size of the first ; 

 below this again 

 traces of a third 

 vallum were visible 

 upon the western 

 side. 6 The sections 

 here figured, and 

 which were made 

 by Hamper as far 

 back as 1834, show 

 the inner defences 

 in greater detail. 



There is an entrance which is apparently ancient at the south end ; a 

 cutting now to be seen through the eastern bank did not exist in 1834. 

 Water still lies in the moat below the inner rampart on the south-west 

 side. After Nadbury, which it somewhat resembles both in its shape and 

 in the form of its defences, this camp is one of the largest of its class in 

 the county. It must once have been a very formidable stronghold ; besides 

 having apparently triple ramparts, it had also doubtless the protection of 

 the swamps and the morasses which would spread out along the still boggy 



Hutton's B'ham. p. 460. O.S. Map, I in. (1831). 



' Preserved in Dugdale's Wanu. (Bloxam's copy). 4 O.S. Map, 6 in. (1882). 



Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 87, and in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. 



, PP- 39. 4 Z - 



394 



SOLIHULL 



SCALE or TEET 

 SO 6O 9O 



