A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE BLEWBURY. A strange circular pit, called Curnel or Cucknel pit, lies in a hollow on the Downs above Blewbury near Churn bottom. It has been surrounded by a vallum, the outside of which was carefully formed, and was very convex in form. Much of this vallum has now disappeared, and the rabbits have disfigured the greater part of the remainder, so that only a small portion shows the original section. It has been suggested that this was a Roman amphitheatre. 1 BUCKLEBURY. There is a group of long low mounds on Bucklebury Common which have sometimes been described as tumuli, and are tra- ditionally called ' the graves.' Several of these were opened in 1877 by Canon Greenwell, General Lane-Fox and others, when some small fragments of charcoal alone were found. 1 LAMBOURN. Among the tumuli, known as Seven barrows, are two which deserve special mention, as they are much lower than the others, and are surrounded by valla about 1 25 feet in diameter. Between the vallum and the central tumulus there is in each case a deep fosse. LETCOMBE BASSETT. On Mere End Down at the extreme south end of the parish, and not far from some tumuli, the side of the down is shaped into a number of nearly level and almost square terraces, giving the hillside the appearance of a terraced chess board. These were obviously not formed for the sake of defence, nor could they have been caused by ploughing, as the length of each square is too small, and the only reasonable explanation seems to be that they are the result of spade cultivation, and that we have here the site of a prehistoric village. On the other side of the valley, in Lambourn parish, near Stancombe Farm, are further examples of the same type, but not so clearly marked. EASTHAMPSTEAD. There are four small redoubts on the crest of Easthampstead plain, not far from Broadmoor, erected in 1792, when the first army manoeuvres were held in this neighbourhood. ' Tram. Newbury Dist. Field Club, iv. 40. ' Ibid. ii. 256; iii. 1 68. 284
