Identifier: transactionsofsh37shro (find matches)
Title: Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (Great Britain)
Subjects: Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (Great Britain) Excavations (Archaeology) Natural history
Publisher: Shrewsbury (etc.) Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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he present minimum width ofentrance is about 1 5 feet. About 40 yards from the outer bank at A is a small spring. An old line of fence (shown by a full black line on the plan)crosses the earthwork from north-west to south-east, andalong its course the defences are a good deal debased ; atthe eastern end there is a curious hum)) trenching upon theditch ; this has every appearance of being modern. Conjectural Remarks.—The variations in the character ofthe defences appear to be determined by the nature of theground at the various points. The principal object seems tohave been the: provision of two or three artificial scarps of 10or more feet in height. On the east and north west, wherethe ground is steepest, this has been accomplished by cuttingterraces in the hillside ; to the west, and again at the northernextremity, where the ground is rather less steep, the terracestake the form of ditch and bank, thus providing for the re-tention of the scarps to their full height. On the compara-
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SHROPSHIRE EARTHWORKS. l6g tively flat approach near the: entrance additional ditches andhanks have been made ; and on the south-east, where theground falls and then rises again, we have a deeper ditch, pro-bably cut in the rock with nearly vertical sides. Earls Hill Camp, 1905.See plan opposite, and sections, p. 170. In situation, crowning the summit of a hill, and 111 the formof the entrance, this camp compares with Caer Caxadocj nearChurch Stretton,1 but it differs from it considerably in thecharacter of its defences, 111 its division into two portions, and111 the existence of the outwork. Its general form is due to the natural shape of the hill, theprincipal enclosure having its defence at about the 1,000 ft.contour; the southern extension takes a somewhat lower .level,but still keeps to the flatter area of the hill top, while the out-work on the north protects the approach road on the less steepsaddle. The natural slopes of the hill to east and west are \ crysteep, averaging I to

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