A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



in a commanding position between the Saxon camp at Maldon, and 

 within sight of the Danish camp and settlement at Danbury (Danes' 

 town) ; it is probably contemporaneous with these and with Purleigh 

 Mount.' 



Other tumuli which existed in this part of the county have been 

 ruthlessly destroyed, though traces of some are indicated on the 25-inch 

 Ordnance Survey map 1 while one on Northey Island in the parish 

 of St. Mary, Maldon, remains intact. 



STOW MARIES : Barrows. See Woodham Ferrers. 



TILBURY (WEST). South of the hall garden is a fosse or ditch with 

 a broad bank on its outer side formed by the ridge of a steep hillside 

 rising abruptly above the Thames valley. 



This fosse, about 250 feet long, and a return piece of 72 feet on the 

 west, are the only vestiges of antiquity that we see here. 



Some assert that a Roman ' camp ' was here, while others have 

 claimed that the work was constructed as a defence to the camp of 

 Elizabeth, when that queen rested at West Tilbury the night before her 

 celebrated review of her troops on August 9, 1588. As Mr. Thorne 

 indicates * a contemporary chart exists, which shows the camping 

 ground to have been adjacent to the church and hall. 



Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, writing in 1885, referred to outer earthworks 

 and a slight ridge bordering the hilltop ' which may have been of a 

 very early date,' but these evidences seem to have disappeared, owing 

 perhaps to the gravel-digging which is in progress. 



TOTHAM (GREAT). On the southern tongue of this parish and in 

 Heybridge (on the northern side of the Blackwater) were tumuli known 

 as the Barrow or Borough Hills ; few or no traces remain, though the 

 mounds were formerly considerable in number. 



Salmon thought them the graves of Saxons or Danes slain in war- 

 fare, but nothing was found, or at all events, recorded, to enable us to fix 

 an approximate date. 



WIGBOROUGH (GREAT). Salmon and all his copyists mention the 

 small tumulus near the church as possibly thrown up to cover those who 

 were slain in some battle which may have taken place here, and he sur- 

 mised that the wasting of their bodies caused the mound to sink to its 

 low level ! 



WOODHAM FERRERS, STOW MARIES AND HOCKLEY. A large group 

 of barrows or mounds remains on the northern side of the river Crouch, 

 within the parishes named. Gough mentions ' 24 barrows grouped in 

 pairs and most of them surrounded by a ditch,' erroneously assigning 

 them to Woodham Mortimer parish. Upon examination in about 

 1868, Mr. (now Sir John) Evans inclined to think them comparatively 

 modern, and the late Mr. H. W. King wrote : ' If the earthworks were 

 really what Mr. Evans regards them, they were probably hastily thrown 



1 Mr. E. A. Fitch expresses the opinion that two tumuli shown on the Ordnance Survey are of 

 quite recent construction. 



3 Environs of London, p. 614. 



306 



