ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



side the works or to be retained when needed. The castle moat proper 

 could be relieved of its surplus water by a sluice at F, a point much 

 lower than the inlet E. 



Close to and on the east of the present footbridge over the Stort 

 will be noticed a break in the embankment, now partially filled up, 

 through which the river water could be led into the reservoir ; but 

 examination of the ground further west shows that at some time a 

 stream flowed along the bottom, indeed it is most probable that the 

 Stort itself flowed here and was artificially diverted. Banking is evident 

 to the west of the ground shown on the plan, and there are two mys- 

 terious little banks on the east which we indicate. 



We have devoted much space to these outer earthworks, because 

 they appear to form an interesting example of hydraulic engineering of 

 an early date. 



EASTON (GREAT). The moated mound here though insignificant 

 when compared with the large work at Mount Bures is like thereto in 

 giving a distinctive name 

 to its parish, for there 

 can be little doubt that 

 the Norman place-name 

 Easton ad Montem was de- 

 rived from this artificial 

 mount as Bures ad Mon- 

 tern from that. 



Some would assign 

 the mound to Roman or 

 pre-Roman days, but it 

 may well have been a 

 lonely little fortified work 

 in a clearing of the great 

 woodland in Saxon times, 

 or it may represent part Creaf ars/v/r. ssex 



of the defensive WOrk of ^ '' ne ' rom * to how> t moat about 8 feet in depth, the mound 



of about zo feet altitude and the moat again. 



the grantee in Norman 



William's reign. This view is perhaps strengthened if we can regard 



the scanty traces of outer work on the south as part and parcel of the 



whole. 



ELMDON. Close to Elmdonbury, now the chief manor-place of this 

 parish, is a wood for generations past known as Castle Grove ; within it 

 is a circular moated mound, to which no reference is made in our 

 county histories. It may have been, probably was, the first site of the 

 castle or manor-house of the manor mentioned in Domesday, then held 

 of Count Eustace of Boulogne by Roger de Sumeri. 1 



1 It may be well to note that the present house of Elmdonbury, though of some antiquity, 

 is not on the site of the late-mediaeval manor house, it occupied the square moated enclosure about 

 400 yards to the west. 



293 



