ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 
(1) Tue ‘ Kine’s Ditcu,’ Beprorp.—The Chronicle‘ tells us that 
King Edward ‘ went with the army to Bedanforda, and gained the burgh, 
. . . and he remained there four weeks and commanded the burg on 
the south side of the river to be built (at#méran) before he went thence.’ 
This was in 919. Previously the town, with whatever fort commanded 
the ford, was on the north side. Mr. G. T. Clark assumes that this 
entry implied the rearing of a mound, for which there is no evidence, 
nor even a tradition. There is however a work on the south of the 
river which may fairly be attributable to this month of labour. It is a 
very ancient cutting which describes a circuit from a point on the river 
to the west of the town to a point on the east, about half a mile dis- 
tant. It is shown in Speed’s map of 1610. The river still runs through 
this cutting, and in flood time it is full to the brim, 10 or 12 feet 
across. In recent times it has been shortened on the east, but the old 
course is still strongly marked, and flood water takes possession of this 
too. Some traces of an interior rampart are here still visible. This 
work goes by the name of the ‘ King’s Ditch,’ and when stockaded 
would form an effective defence for Edward’s new garrison. The ditch 
is carefully maintained and is a notable boundary of property. 
It has also been suggested that this cutting may have been a water- 
way made at the time of Henry the Third’s great siege of Bedford Castle 
in 1224, but this siege is described with so much minuteness in the old 
record* that an important detail such as the making of this ‘ditch’ 
must have been recorded. Moreover it is evident that the besiegers 
with their engines were drawn round the castle very closely, and a 
comparatively remote water-way could have been of little service. It 
should also be noted that two Norman churches, one very early, stood 
half-way between river and ditch, on the line of the main road to the 
bridge. 
(2) Tempsrorp.—Two years later the East Anglian Danes abandoned 
Huntingdon, their headquarters, and moved u 
the Ouse to Tempsford, where they ‘wrought TEMPSFORD 
a work’ and established themselves. At this 
place, on the south of the Ivel, near its junc- yuuStees OF FSET 
tion with the Ouse, there remains a strong 
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little fort, which all our earthwork authori- ssl N 
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ties assign to this occupation. Mr. I. C. 
Gould says : ‘ This example is of great value, 
as we know the date of its construction.’® 
Mr. J. H. Round describes it as ‘an advanced 
post of the Danes.’ * It stands about 200 yards 
from the former bank of the river, and is oblong in shape, being about 
120 feet by 84 feet within the ramparts, which remain on three sides 
to a height of 11 or 12 feet above the bottom of the moat. The moat 
el feerey 
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1 Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i. 192. 2 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 86-9. 
3 Fourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc. ‘Early Defensive Earthworks,’ p. 22. 4 Quart. Review, July 1894. 
I 281 36 
