parts, destroyed by gravel diggers, that it is difficult to follow the lines of the work.
Professor Boyd Dawkins thinks that —
The complicated embankments and ditches which circumscribe the area are obviously intended for boundaries, mapping off different quarters, with shallow ditches and low ramps, and are not designed as fortifications.[1]
and the Rev. E. A. Downman regards the trenches simply as worn tracks in the soft sandy gravel.
Both views are correct as to part of the works, but the plan and measured section published by the late R. C. Hussey, F.S.A., indicate earthworks of a strongly defensive character on the south-west,[2] and two competent military engineers, who have recently examined Bigbury, found sufficient evidence to satisfy themselves that it was a defended oppidum, and that its principal portion was originally protected by two ramparts with an intermediate fosse.[3] They write: —
The main work is situated on a plateau averaging some 230 ft. above sea-level, resting on a bed of gravel overlying the dry Thanet sands ; it overlooks the valley of the Stour to the south, but is divided from the heights of Harbledown to the north by a broad valley.
Its internal area within the ramparts measures about 1,000 ft. east to west and varies from 500 to 1,000 ft. from north to south, and closely follows the 200 contour line. A crescentic defended annexe (possibly for cattle), strengthening a vulnerable side, is appended to the north-west face; this slopes rapidly downwards to a much lower level ; its measurements are about 1,000 ft. from east to west, and 500 ft. from north to south.
The main approaches are on the east and west. The entrance on the east is in continuation of the deep sunk winding Pilgrim Way from Canterbury, and is the more interesting owing to the two deep tracks which appear to have been used successively, as the previous track got impracticable, the most southerly being the deepest by some 10 ft.; it is considerably lower than the line of entrenchments which it penetrates, about 25 ft. below the bank on its southern margin, and must be the oldest of the alternative exits on this eastern side.
By comparing numerous relics discovered here with those found in certain settlements of a known period. Professor Boyd Dawkins concludes that Bigbury is of the Prehistoric Iron Age, belonging to a period ranging from one to two centuries before the invasion of Britain by Cassar.[4]
The close relation of this work to the British track, now called Pilgrim Way, adds materially to its archæological interest.
Iffin Wood. — See Nackington.
Ightham: Oldbury. — This ancient earthwork is on a bold hill varying in height from 600 ft. on the south to 400 ft. on the north. The position is naturally strong upon the south, and to a limited extent at other points, but the extreme north and north-east is practically level, and has no natural defence. The land in the neigh-395
- ↑ Athenæum, 24 May, 1902.
- ↑ Arch. Cant. (1874), ix. 'The British settlements in Bigbury Wood, Harbledown.'
- ↑ The much-to-be-deplored gravel digging has disclosed a section of the filled-up fosse on the south-west, where it might be expected to have existed, but, naturally, was not shown on the O.S. maps, as it was not visible.
- ↑ Arch. Journ. (1902) lix.
