298 



Erlestoke and its Manor Lords. 



To the same period may be ascribed the " Castle," which, though 

 no longer visible, existed as late as the seventeenth century, as is 

 shown by the references to it that are found in a manor court 

 book of that time. In the schedules of tenants' holdings the 

 location of the various strips of which these were made up involves 

 the mention of the Castle several times as on the West Hill, in an 

 elevated position not far from Marditch (a part of the Hillwood), 

 and near the Coulston boundary, and it is so probable as to be 

 certain that it was on the highest point of the hill and that its 

 disappearance is due to the fact that a large area there has been 

 quarried out for chalk. Like most of the castles of the Wiltshire 

 downs, this must have been a place of refuge to which the families 

 and the cattle of the tribe could be taken for safety when threatened 

 by attack from a neighbouring tribe, and the fact that the elevation 

 at this point (729 feet) is the highest between Bratton and Milton 

 makes it a likely situation to be chosen for such a purpose. It is 

 conjectured that at this period the vale was covered by a dense 

 forest except those parts of it which were lake or marsh, and that 

 the hill only was open to cultivation and comparatively free from 

 the attacks of wild beasts. The traces of an ancient settlement in 

 Imber parish and close to the southern end of Erlestoke parish, 

 and the many tumuli close by that testify to its importance, suggest 

 the possibility that it was from here that adventurous spirits set 

 out towards the vale and laid the foundations of the parishes of 

 Erlestoke and its neighbours. 



Two thousand years later the Eomans had invaded Britain and 

 had conquered the Belgae, the tribe then occupying this part of 

 the country, who settled down after a stubborn resistance to a 

 peaceful existence under Boman rule. A large number of Boman 

 coins have been and are continually being found on the " Sands," 

 to the north-west of the village, where the spade and the plough 

 expose them, and it is recorded by an antiquarian who wrote a 

 short account of Erlestoke at the middle of the eighteenth century 

 that many had been found on the " Sharp " nearer the hill. 1 The < 



1 MS. 115, Society of Antiquaries. 



