A HISTORY OF KENT 



Whatever the date of its origin is, there can be no question that 

 this is an interesting work, worthy of the care bestowed upon its pre- 

 servation by the present Lord Darnley. 



It is situated on the northern skirt of Cobham Park within about 

 450 ft, of WatUng Street, and is largely covered with timber. 



Old workings for sand have much destroyed the southern slope of 

 the hill. 



Colored Camp. — The church stands within the lines of an ancient 

 fortress, which is about 370 ft. above sea-level, and 50 ft. above a valley 

 a quarter of a mile westward. The entrenchments consist of a fosse with 

 the ballast thrown inward to form a rampart, the whole of some power, 

 but not in a good state of preservation. An ancient well is said to have 

 been found when cutting the modern roadway which bisects the en- 

 closure. It has been 

 claimed that Ceoldred, 

 King of Mercia, fought 

 near here with Ine, King 

 of Wessex, in 694, and 

 gave his name to the 

 place, but as various 

 relics of Roman age have 

 been found, it is perhaps 

 not unlikely that the for- 

 tress is of the Romano- 

 British period, notwith- 

 standing the peculiar 

 semi-rounded form of 

 the north-western end. 

 Entrance ways remain 

 ^'^ on three out of the four 

 positions usually adopted 

 for that purpose in Ro- 

 man castrametation, and one may have existed on the north-west, though 

 not now traceable. Hasted gives an engraving of the fortifications and 

 shows a considerable mount on the south-east side of the modern road 

 but a quarry has destroyed all traces.* 



Darenth Wood. — Both on the south-east and south-west sides of 

 the wood are traces of scarping and banking, which appear to indicate 

 the former presence of some sort of defensive work, but the remains are 

 obscure. 



Harbledown : Bigbury. — About three miles west of Canterbury, 

 the pre-historic track, known as the Pilgrim Way, runs through an 

 enclosure locally denominated Bigberry, or Bigbury Camp. 



The Ordnance Survey (25" scale map) shows the course of the 

 principal trenches, but the remains are so hidden by brushwood, and, in 



Co/</ree/, /Cer?A 



%s> 



SCALE OF FEET 

 100 200 



The Camp, Colored. 



Hist. Kent (1799), iv. 

 394 



