Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/325

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ANCIENT EARTHWORKS A Tmf'""""^-n MiiP

^. ftCALt or retT AsHTON * Camp,' Eye r=- • -•■ Eye : Ashton ' Camp.' — Ashton, a township of Eye, situated about 3 J miles north-north-east of Leominster, possesses mutilated traces of a camp said to be ' evidently Roman.' What evi- dence may have been afforded when the works were fairly complete we are not aware, but from the remaining fragments it is impossible to assign a period to the construction. The embankments, if they existed, have been levelled, but the line of defence is -clearly defined, the inclosure occupying a tongue of land 400 ft. above sea level, hav- ing a general slope towards the north-north- west. A platform raised 5 ft., shown in plan, is placed on the eastern side of the area, and further south is a slight mount with a cup-shaped hollow. It has been suggested that the inclosure may have been made for a camping- place of one or other of the contending forces in the 17th century. These works are described in the Trans. Woolhope Field Club?^ Ashton Castle Tump lies half a mile to the north-west. Fawley Camp. See Brockhampton. Grendon Bishop: Westington 'Camp.' — Westington, or Netherton, is miles west- by-north from Bromyard. Here is a natural tongue of land, about 700 ft. above sea level, jutting out between two gullies, one on the north-west, the other south-east, streams from these uniting three-eighths of a mile south- west. The position is naturally defended on three sides by the fall of the hill, and if there were entrenchments, cutting off the tongue from the high land on the north-east, the work would form a stronghold ; but there are no true earthworks thus defending that weak side. The scarps on the north-west, and one on the north-east sloping inward instead of outward (not shown on the plan), are probably natural. Though mentioned in Gough's Additions to Camden's Britannia as a ' square camp,* there is much doubt whether the position was ever truly fortified. Leominster. — The bank or rampart near the Grange, shown on the accompanying plan, is not in its original condition, as it has been lowered and levelled to form a promenade in- closing a public recreation ground. There is now no fosse, and houses, gardens, and roads have obliterated the track of the bank on the eastern side. The work apparently belongs to a class of earthworks known in Yorkshire as ' garths,' and was probably of no great importance. "Op. cit. (1883-5), 174- I 257 Westington ' Camp,' Grendon Bishop 4. .^y ^^^; i;^^^^'^>>■■ "'11;; r/)e c, range a Leominster Grange 33