ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



decide the former question, but its position and surroundings, as well as the 

 antiquity of the church and manor here, distinctly point to its being an 

 earthwork mount castle, with probably a base court or bailey attached, like 

 the more perfectly preserved examples which the Lune valley has to show.^* 



Newton in Makerfield (15 miles east of Liverpool). — Nearly a third 

 of a mile north-north-east of the parish church is a conspicuously placed 

 artificial hillock called the ' Castle Hill * ; three good-sized oaks grow upon 



•07 

 75. 



SCALE OF FEET 

 O 100 zoo 300 



I I 



SECTION fromE.toD. Same Scale. 

 E B ^ 



U 



LQvei- 



Castle Hill, Newton in Makerfield 



it, possibly the descendants of the ' gnarled trees three centuries old ' 

 described by a writer sixty years ago. 



The Castle Hill occupies a commanding site at the north-east corner of 

 a slightly raised plateau ; it is v^^ithin an elbow formed by the deep-cut 

 valley of the River Dene, which separates it from the adjacent level country 

 on two of its sides, the north and the east ; on the v^rest side, the plateau is 

 continuous with a ridge running in that direction, while to the south it 

 gradually falls away to a little stream in low and formerly marshy ground. 



" Baines, Hist. Lanes, (ed. 1868), ii, 6i6 ; Watkins, Roman Lanes. 222; Ord. Surv. i-in. 59, old 91 NE.; 

 ^-in. 25 NE., ; 25-in. 25, 4. 



