ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 





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describes the entrenchments as double, whereas the greater part of the camp is cinctured only by a 

 low bank on the crest of the deep escarpment of the natural hill-side. Adjoining the triple vallum 

 two transverses cross the neck of the ridge ; the outer one is 8 ft. in height, and the inner 4 ft., 

 with an intermediate space of 120 ft. The inner transverse widens into a broad platform at its 

 ' eastern end, where it commands an entrance into the camp and a path which descends the hill at 

 this point. 



The interior area, which comprises about 6 acres, assumes an elongated tongue-like form at its 

 south-west extremity, where the vallum is broken by three apertures somewhat like embrasures for 

 artillery, through which the defenders could approach the edge of the steep declivity for the dis- 

 charge of missiles upon an enemy beneath. From the westernmost of these openings a long bank 

 descends the hill-side to the valley to impede the massing of the foe. An entrance on the south 

 enters the camp obliquely through the vallum, and is defended by an agger at the top, which also 

 serves as a transverse, rising 4 ft. on the north-east, and 

 descending 1 2 ft. into a ditch of 4 ft. on the south-west. 

 Two hundred feet towards the centre of the camp is 

 another transverse 4 ft. in height. Thus was the con- 

 struction planned that should one end of the camp be 

 forced a succession of defences would have to be carried 

 before the besieged were overwhelmed. 



In Lysons' time he tells us the vallum was much 

 injured by the plough, and although the area is not now 

 under cultivation, we cannot know how far this ingeni- 

 ously conceived camp has been injured. The scene, 

 doubtless, of feuds between the Dumnonii and the 

 Durotriges, Musbury is supposed to have played a part in 

 the famous battle of Brunanburgh in a.d. 937. 



Ottery St. Mary (O.S. Ixxxi, 4). — Belbury, or 

 Belsbury, Castle. Crowning an eminence on the West 

 Hills — by which name the range is distinguished from 

 the East Hills, on which Sidbury Castle is situated — 

 li- miles south-west of Ottery St. Mary, are the frag- 

 mentary remains of that which was once a formidable 

 stronghold. The proportions of Belbury Castle are 

 reduced, being partially destroyed about the year 1792, 

 when the entrenchments were levelled, the earth from 

 the ramparts being thrown into the central area to level 

 the ground. It is described as having formerly had a 

 great ditch all round the outside, and the present road 

 on the southern and eastern sides occupies the site of the 

 ancient fosse. 



The site is now known as ' Castle Field,' and there 

 an irregular rectangle 500 ft. long and 200 ft. at its 

 widest part, more or less marks the position of the fort. 

 From a careful survey of the road and the site, it is 

 apparent that the entrance was on the south-east of the 

 camp, but it is now impossible to ascertain the nature of 

 its defence. 



On the western side a sunk road runs due north and 

 south for a distance of 1,000 ft., for some part of its length protected by an outer bank. When 

 Mr. Orlando Hutchinson was making inquiries on the spot in 1861, an old resident told him that 

 he could remember when this road was perfect all the way northward to Streetway Head, and even 

 at that time he could trace it in many places. 



Payhembury (O.S. Iviii, 10). — Hembury Fort, 4 miles from Honiton, is the grandest monu- 

 ment of military skill and strategy of the Britons in the county of Devon. Crovvning a bold spur 

 of great height it is a marvellous exhibition of indomitable energy in those who raised such huge 

 circumvallations of earth. 



Of elongated egg-shape the area of Hembury — 1,085 ft. long and 330 ft. wide at the north 

 end, tapering gradually towards the south — is surrounded by a double vallum, tripled on the north, 

 west, and south, and quadrupled at the north-west corner. The inner vallum, varying from 4 ft. to 

 6 ft. in height, and rising to i o ft. at the north, is incurved to protect an entrance from the fosse at 

 the north-east ; at the fosse level of this gateway is a raised semi-circular mound C for the defence 

 of the same entry. Lower down on the same side two footpaths, D D, curving into one at the 

 base, give access to a berme 1 1 ft. beneath the inner rampart and 1 8 ft. above the fosse, which berme, 

 I 585 74 



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Little Ca,st1e''-7^f>'Cop^e 



Belbury Castle, Ottery St. Mary. 



