ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS 



The camp is roughly triangular in form, though actually its sides are 

 five in number ; it encloses an area of about 9 acres. The defences, 

 which are still formidable on the north side, consist primarily of a 

 rampart, protected externally by a ditch ; beyond this again there are 

 remnants in some places of a second rampart and ditch. There are 

 further banks and trenches to be seen within the wood, which probably 

 form outworks to the main fort. The height of the rampart at the 

 northern apex of the camp is 12 feet with a breadth at its base of 

 27 feet ; the ditch defending it measures 32 feet across. 



Local antiquaries have invariably described these remains as Roman, 

 without apparently any kind of proof for the assertion. 1 No antiquities 

 of any kind are known to have been dug up here, to afford a clue either 

 to the occupiers or the makers of the earthworks. As far as mere out- 

 ward appearances go, the stronghold more or less resembles some of the 

 works of class B u ; but the site requires exploration with the spade before 

 any definite opinion as to age or origin can safely be expressed. 



TAMWORTH. The massive tower called the castle stands upon the 

 earthwork keep of an ancient mount and court fort of class E. This 

 fort again lies in the corner of what was once a rectangular entrenched 

 area of considerable extent. 



The site of the mount and court stronghold is upon the right bank 

 of the river Tame, just below the point where it is joined by its tribu- 

 tary the Anker. It is within the county of Warwick, while half of the 

 town of Tamworth, including a portion of the large rectangular entrenched 

 area, is in Staffordshire. 



Entering the small modern park which now surrounds the mediaeval 

 castle, we see the solid tower placed upon the top of a round hill. This 

 hill is an earthen mount of artificial origin ; it measures about 250 feet in 

 diameter at its base, and is about 50 feet in height ; it is conical in shape, 

 with a truncated summit measuring nearly 100 feet across. On the east 

 side of this mount is to be seen a portion of its ancient moat ; we are 

 also reminded of the former existence of a similar excavation on the west 

 side by the name of a street, the ' Hollow Way,' which occupies its 

 former site. Ninety years ago the fosse around the mount was still 

 almost perfect. A writer in T'be Gentleman's Magazine for 1813 describes 

 the keep as then encircled by a deep ditch for two-thirds of its circum- 

 ference on the landward side ; this fosse, he remarks, was ' probably 

 always, as now, dry, being above the level of the river,' which defended 

 it upon its remaining side.' 



Adjoining this moated mount on its south-east side, and about 1 5 

 feet above the water of the Tame, is a roughly triangular platform of 

 earth, which is apparently more or less artificial ; its south bank, facing 

 the river, is straight ; that on the east is at present concave, but was 



1 Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 83, and in Arch. Journ. vol. xxxiii. 

 (1876), p. 375 ; Bloxam in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Irani. (1875), p. 32 ; Turner's Sbaks. Land, 

 p. 309. 



3 Gents. Mag. (1813) pt. i. pp. 592-3. 



397 



