A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



filled in by former ploughings, but it is still traceable by the curved depres- 

 sion along its course, and is especially recognizable where the rampart of the 

 bailey approaches the mount from the north. There is no fosse round the 

 mount on its west, south, and south-east sides, where the steep, and in places 

 almost precipitous, natural slopes, which were possibly artificially scarped as 

 well, formed ample protection. The bailey lies to the north-east of the 

 mount, and is crescentic in shape. The area of it and its defences and those 

 of the mount taken together is hardly an acre. Its interior has apparently 

 been raised artificially to a height of about 4 ft. above its immediate sur- 

 roundings ; this in order to command equally high ground near it on the 

 north. The site shows traces of ancient ploughing, which has largely 

 obliterated the former defences ; but a rampart of varying height is still 

 visible on the north-west and north sides, and is traceable on the north-east ; 

 the fosse outside this has evidently been well-nigh filled by former cultivation 

 of the field, and is now only to be identified by a depression about half-way 

 round, beginning from the west. The highest surviving portion of the I 

 rampart is now only 2 ft. in height above the level of the bailey, and 6 ft. above 

 the ground outside, from which position it is best viewed. The hill upon 

 which the castle is situated has been grazed for the past fifty years or more, 

 and all its steep slopes, both artificial and natural, have become terraced by 

 the continual tread of animals. This has also tended to obliterate the pre- 

 viously ploughed defensive earthworks. There are no signs of any masonry 

 about the castle, and its palisades must, therefore, have been of wood. 



The church of Halton, just across the beck below the mount, is rebuilt 

 upon an ancient foundation, and there is a Saxon cross standing beside it. 



The mount has been often described as sepulchral, and also as a Roman 

 botontinus, but there is no doubt that it is a mount and court earthwork castle 

 of the usual type.'" 



Hornby with Farleton (8 miles east-north-east of Lancaster). — About 

 a mile north of this village, on the right-hand side of the road, just before 

 the bridge over the Lune is reached, is a very fine earthwork of the mount 

 and court class — in fact, the best example which the county of Lancaster 

 now possesses. It is known by the name of the Castlestede. 



The site is remarkable, being at the north-west extremity of a ridge of 

 high ground, which projects as far as the banks of the Lune, at the point where 

 the ancient ford crossed the river. To the north stretch the wide flat low- 

 lands on either side of the river called Hornby Holmes ; across the Lune to 

 the west is fiat meadow again, while to the south the valley spreads out 

 in a broad expanse towards the River Wenning and Farleton and Claughton. 

 The end of the promontory upon the flat top of which the castle stands is 

 125 ft. above sea level and 50 ft. above the meadows beside the river. 

 Behind, to the south-east, the ground drops slightly at first and then slopes 

 upwards to a similar elevation some 100 yds. away ; at a distance of 250 yds. 

 it rises to as much as 1 60 ft. in height. 



The earthwork consists of a very perfect moated mount of moderate 

 size, with a relatively large court or bailey attached to it on the west ; the 

 total area covered by the castle and its defences is about 2\ acres. The 



'" Baines, Hist. Lanes, (ed. 1868), ii, 607 ; Watkins, Rom. Lanes. 222 ; Ord. Surv. i-in. 59 ; old 91 

 NE. ; 6-in. 30 NE. ; 25-iii. 30, 4. 



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