ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



on this spot, but, as the late Roach Smith, referring to the earthwork, 

 said, ' there can, in my opinion at least, be no doubt of its British 

 origin." 



PosTLiNG : ToLSFORD HiLL. — At about a mile south-east of the 

 village of Postling are some traces of a camp, mentioned in Petrie's list 

 of Kentish earthworks/ 



Selling : Shottenden Hill. — Hasted gives a plan of a camp 

 containing about an acre and three-quarters of high ground and states 

 that ' the top is a flat, which seems levelled by art. . . . The form of 

 the entrenchments vary according to the rounding of the hill ; the 

 north-east, north-west, and south-east angles are pretty near right angles, 

 but that to the south-west is rounding." He states that the position 

 commands the country on all sides and is well supplied with water. 



An examination of the spot shows that, though the traces are 

 difficult to follow, Hasted's description was fairly correct. The wind- 

 mill hill, which he also mentions as being prominent within the area, 

 appears to be a truncated cone, possibly an ancient fort. The entrench- 

 ment shown in Hasted's plan is mainly a fosse, cut on the slope of the 

 hill-sides. 



SwANScoMBE : MouNTs WooD. — Mr. Spurrell found here the 

 disturbed outline of a defensive enclosure of no great importance." 



SwANScoMBE : Park. — On either side of what is considered to 

 have been the ancient course of Watling Street, where it crosses the 

 steep hill a mile south of Swanscombe, some 300 ft. above sea-level, are 

 traces of banks and ditches which have been thought to indicate a camp, 

 but the outlines are too vague and indefinite to warrant the assumption. 



Teynham : Newlands. — Close to the north of Watling Street, at 

 an elevation of 100 ft. above sea-level, is the hill known by this name, 

 once believed to be the site of the Roman station, Durolevum. 



Of earthwork, rampart and fosse, such as we associate with early 

 defensive enclosures, it possesses none, but the commanding summit 

 has been steeply scarped on all but the southern side, and the upper 

 portion levelled to form a plateau. 



The scarping forms a glacis, in places of 15 ft., but on the south 

 the camp seems not to have been similarly treated ; possibly the natural 

 slope there was sufficient protection. Though, as stated, no rampart 

 now exists, it is likely that one extended along the top of the scarping, 

 and has been thrown down and spread over the plateau to obtain a better 

 level for agricultural purposes. 



Westerham : Squerrys. — The late Canon Scott Robertson thus 

 described the interesting earthwork in the park attached to Squerrys 

 Court : — 



In the Park, upon very high ground about three-quarters of a mile from the man- 

 sion, there is an ancient British Ofpidtim, an earthwork of oval form, which has often 

 been called a Roman Camp. 



» Coll. Cant. (1893) 94. 2 Jrch. Cant. (1880) xiii. 



3 Hist. Kent (1790), iii. 24. ■• ' Dartford Antiquities,' in Jrch. Cant, xviii. 



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