A HISTORY OF KENT 



From Hasted's drawing we suppose the work to have been for 

 sepulchral rather than defensive purposes. 



Sandgate : The Castle. — Its deep moating, remaining to this 

 day, necessitates mention of the castle built by Henry VIII in this 

 section, but the story of the structure and its partial alteration in 1806 

 will be found in a later section of the History. 



Sutton, near Ripple : Wingleton Oaks. — In a pasture field 

 north-west of the farm-house, known under this name, or the perverted 

 form Winkland Oaks, are considerable remains of what appear to have 

 been military works. They are in poor condition, consisting of ridges 

 and broken banks, or mounds, and cover about half an acre of land. A 

 small part of the area is in the adjoining parish of Ripple. 



Walmer : Castle. — This much modernized blockhouse, origin- 

 ated by Henry VIII, will be described in another part of this History ; 

 here we need say no more than that its formidable fosse can still be 

 noticed, though converted into a garden. 



BARHAM DOWNS 



Under this heading we may refer to the numerous fragmentary 

 earthwork remains in various neighbouring parishes. 



The Downs are at an altitude of about 200 ft. above sea and 100 

 ft. above the Lesser Stour, the river which flows at the foot of the 

 Downs on the west, and extend for some four miles from north-west to 

 south-east, carrying along the summit the old Watling Street, now, 

 with slight deviations, the high road from Canterbury to Dover. 



On the east of the road, parallel thereto, at a distance of about 

 500 ft. (opposite to Charlton Park and Kingston on the other side of 

 the river), runs a conspicuous earthwork, shown in the Ordnance 

 Survey map, over 2,000 ft. in length, in parts now rather a mere 

 scarping of the hillside than a true entrenchment, with a rectangular 

 three-sided projection apparently guarding two ways of entry to the 

 higher ground occupied as a camp. This line of work appears to be 

 the best defined portion of those extensive traces which have been 

 discussed by the Rev. F. T. Vine ; indeed it may be said to be all that 

 remains visible, though Mr. Vine wrote : — 



There were probably two large oblong castra, the one extending along Barham 

 Downs opposite Charlton, the other at the (north) western extremity of the Downs, 

 extending over part of Bridge Hill, Bourne Park, and perhaps the grounds of Higham. ' 



Stukeley gives a view of ' Caesar's Camp ' overlooking Kingston 

 church lying in the valley to the west.' Stukeley's imaginative power 

 was great, but the work is too carefully delineated to permit us to 

 suppose that it was not in good preservation when the old antiquary 

 sketched it in 1722. He gives its measurements as thirty paces by 

 sixty. This is probably the now three-sided enclosure above mentioned. 



» Ccesar in Kent (ed. 1887), 186. » Stukeley (W.), Itinerarium Curiosum : The Brill, 1776. 



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