f 



A HISTORY OF KENT 



The position is slightly defended on the south-west by the gentle fall 

 of the ground. The entrenchments vary both in width of base and in 

 character without any apparent object, and do not now form a complete 



enclosure. If ever 

 ■\. „ the entrenchments 



continued and 

 enclosed a space, 

 such enclosure 

 would have been 

 I of large size, but 

 / an early strong- 

 hold defended by 

 such irregular 

 / entrenchments 



^'.oo ""fzoa \ would be unusual. 



'~~' '■-, The whole stands 



\ in a wood of very 

 marshy nature, 

 drained to a 

 limited extent by 

 water courses. A 



m 





Milbay's Camp, Nettlestead. 



cart-track runs between the ramparts or rampart and ditch on the south- 

 west, and on the north, where the western portion of the works may 

 have continued, is agricultural land. 



Newington. — Near Sittingbourne. Keycol Hill has been thought 

 to be the site of a defended Roman station, and vast quantities of 

 pottery of the period have been discovered. 



From the description given by Hasted it is evident that traces of 

 defensive work then existed, and that to the south-west there was a 

 rampart with a deep fosse, and a breast-work extending west and north, * 

 but of all this little or nothing can now be followed with certainty. 

 The position (on 200 ft. level) is however sufficiently commanding to 

 have affiDrded a suitable site for a defensive work, and from the height 

 a considerable stretch of the old Watling Street would be under observa- 

 tion. 



Oldbury. — See Ightham. 



OsPRiNGE : Judd's Hill. — When Hasted wrote there were here 

 well-marked traces of a defenced position ; he says, 'A very deep and broad 

 ditch remains on the summit, the south and east sides entire, etc." But 

 to-day we find hardly a trace ; scarpings of the hill-side and faint out- 

 lines of a fosse here and there, alone remain to tell a tale of the past ; 

 all else has gone, and most of the site is occupied by Syndale House and 

 its park. 



The hill affords so good a command of the surrounding country 

 that it may well have been chosen for the site of a fortress in early 

 times, and it has been stated that the Roman Station Durolevum was 



1 Hist. Kent (1782), ii. = Ibid. ii. 800. 



400 



