ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS 



courses of the little streams which surround it upon three of its sides ; 

 the advantages offered by these natural defences would seem to explain 

 the selection of the existing site for the stronghold in preference to 

 higher ground available close at hand. 



Though the area within the ramparts has been frequently ploughed, 

 there is no record of any antiquities having been unearthed here to throw 

 light upon the age of the entrenchments ; from their general appear- 

 ance, however, they would seem to be of early origin, and intermediate 

 between the two types 

 previously described 

 under letters B l and B u . 

 Perhaps the former name 

 of ' Danes' Camp ' may 

 point to a temporary 

 occupation of the more 

 ancient stronghold by 

 these people. 



HOB'S MOAT. At 

 the northern end of this 

 extensive parish are to be 

 seen some ancient en- 

 trenchments of quite a 

 different age and type, 

 and nowknown as above. 

 In Dugdale's time the 

 place was called Hogg's 

 Moat, 1 and Hutton re- 

 cords that it was once 

 called Odingsell's Moat, 

 a name preserved in the 

 adjoining farmhouse 

 called Odensil, and also 

 recalling certain owners 

 of the estate in the thir- 

 teenth century. 



These entrench- 

 ments are oblong 



SOLIHULL 



SCALE OF FEET 

 100 200 



300 



in 



shape and enclose an interior area of about 2 acres ; they consist of a 

 double rampart with an intervening fosse which, together, cover about 2 

 acres more. A century ago there were remains of a second fosse beyond 

 the outer rampart, and Hutton relates that the total area covered by the 

 earthworks and their enclosure was 5 acres ; he described the inner moat 

 as very formidable, about 20 feet deep and 90 feet across from the crown 

 of one bank to that of the other. 2 



There are now no signs of any building within this moated area ; 

 nor were there any 250 years ago, when Dugdale visited the spot and 



Dugdale's Warvi. p. 662. a Hutton's B'kam. pp. 414-16. 



.-...,< 395 



