ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



given, contained an area of five acres. 1 The deep fosse on the south- 

 west side, in its widest and deepest part, was 35 feet at the top, i8| feet 

 at the bottom, and 7 feet in depth. The fosse on the north-west side, 

 which had been much interfered with by quarrying, was of a different 

 date and far shallower. The construction of a new turnpike road in 

 1838 altered the configuration of the ground materially on the east side, 



CODNOR CASTLE. 



and made the slope much steeper. The circular mound on which the 

 Norman castle was erected proved to be partly artificial, and had been 

 raised some 10 or 12 feet above the natural level of the western part of 

 the field. Six stone implements and a fragment of Celtic pottery indi- 

 cated the earliest occupants of a knoll that commanded an important ford 

 over the Derwent leading to the Wirksworth Valley and its lead mines. 



1 Plan by Mr. Greenwell, Derb. Arch. &oc. Journ. ix. plate 7. 

 381 



