ANCIENT EARTHWORKS earthwork adjoining it is in Minster and about two miles south of Birch- ington. The enclosure that remains has much the character of a homestead moat, but when Hasted wrote there was apparently a further work on the opposite side of the road, and both showed more signs of defensive work. He regarded the camp as a place of retreat, buried in the woods, used by the Saxon inhabitants to retire to when the Danish pirates infested the isle of Thanet. The earher name of the place seems to have been Chessmunds. SiTTiNGBouRNE : Bayford Castle and Court, — Of the former not a wrack remains, and probably like many other ' castles ' it was mainly a moat-defended enclosure. Its site is shown by the Ordnance Surveyors on the eastern side of Milton Creek, about half a mile north by east of Bayford Court.' Bayford Court happily retains evidences of the earthwork defences around the site. Not only does a moat enclose the main position on three sides, but also low ramparts or banks remain in places, extending from the parish church- yard to the court for some thousand feet or more. Special attention is drawn to this work because Mr. Spurrell thinks it the fortress which the Danish army con- structed in 893.° Castle Rough in Milton is usually said to be the site of the work, but its form is against this view, and it would seem probable that the lines of work about Bayford Court are more likely to have sheltered the invaders when Hasten came ' with eighty ships into the Thames ' mouth and wrought him a work at Middleton." Stanford : Westenhanger. — The fortified manor house, mainly dating from the fourteenth century, will be referred to in another section of this History ; here it is sufficient to record the evidences which remain of its once broad and deep moat, fed by a stream which rises on the hill above Stanford church. Sutton at Hone : St. John's. — This interesting example of ' Hasted {History of Kent, ii. 1782) refers to Bayford Castle in such manner as to suggest that his reference may be intended for what is now known as Bayford Court, and we cannot but conclude that mystery attaches to the exact spot occupied by the castle. » 'Early Sites and Embankments,' Arch. Journ. (1885) xlii. 3 Angl.-Sai. Chron. a.d. 893 I 433 55 Bayford Court, near Sittingbourne FROM PLAN BY Mr. SpURRELL.
