ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



drawbridge, the moat continuing till it joined the southern arm of the 

 defensive work. 



It is worth noting that slight as is the elevation of the castle site 

 it is a conspicuous object owing to the low level of the adjacent land. 



A road immediately north of the castle is claimed as a pre-Roman 

 trackway by some antiquaries, but we are not aware of supporting 

 evidence. 



Walmer : Church and Court Moats. — Pritchard's History of 

 Deal (1864) says 'round Walmer church ... on a rise is a deep 

 fosse.' So far as can easily be seen now there is but a ditch, or fosse, 

 on the south side of the churchyard, and this was made only some 

 sixty years ago ! Yet Hasted found in his time ' a deep single fosse 

 around,' and various writers have thought the spot a Roman camp. 



Enquiry of the ' oldest inhabitant ' and careful examination of 

 certain traces reveal the fact that there truly was a fosse, but instead of 

 surrounding only the churchyard, part of its ramifications enclosed the 

 castle, or mansion, remains of which are in Walmer Court grounds. 

 Thus we find this reputed ' camp ' to be one of those enclosures, 

 common in feudal days, which guarded the hall and the church of a 

 Norman lord.' 



Westenhanger. — See Stanford. 



Hi 



f/ Keepers 



J C CotTages 



o 



SCALE OFFECT ^ N 

 100 Z(^0 300 



ANCIENT VILLAGE SITES 

 [Class H] 



Aylesford : Preston Woods. — Just within the parish boundary 

 (half a mile south-west of Barming station) is the slight entrenchment 

 named on the new Ord- 

 nance Survey a ' camp,' ^..^.;J^V,V".',";;;■,;;,v,v,;',',,^',, l^ 

 but more like the bound- 

 ary of a wood. It stands 

 upon ground practically 

 level with the land, and 

 the position has no 

 natural defence. The 

 entrenchments are very 

 slight, as will be seen by 

 the plan and sections, and 

 granting a perfect ram- 

 part and ditch on all 

 sides, the base is so ex- 

 ceedingly narrow, only 

 20 ft., that it would have 

 little strength. 



Leaving aside the 

 ' camp ' theory, which 

 seems quite untenable, 



• The place was held by tli 



Entrenchment in Preston Woods, Aylesford. 

 Aubeiville family in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 

 435 



