A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



tower of the church and looking down upon them ; the ground plan of the 

 earthwork of a moated mount and court castle is then easily discernible. 

 After obtaining this general idea of the site, it is not difficult to plot out the 

 form and size of the mount and its adjacent bailey upon the field, as is shown 

 in the illustration. 



The position of this castle is upon slightly sloping ground, which, not 

 many hundred yards away to the south, forms a watershed between two 



SECTION from Dfo E. same, scale. 



TTF. Fosses. A. hounr. B. Baileu . 

 S~Srream . y\, ^ 



Cajtw Field, West Derby 



^evet. 



brooks, each about a mile distant, to north-east and south-west respectively. 

 A now much reduced streamlet bounds the immediate site on the north-west 

 and north, and another, which falls into it, on its south-west and south 

 sides ; probably in days when the woods of West Derby were very extensive, 

 as was the case when the castle existed, these streams and their marshy banks 

 on three of its sides would form no mean protection. The castle field is now 

 sHghtly lower than those which surround it ; but this is explained by the fact 

 that it was never ploughed till about the year 1820, and then apparently only 



544 



