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SECTIONS IN 1834, HAMPER A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE Unfortunately these important remains have suffered much in modern times at the hands of man. At the end of the eighteenth century the ramparts were described by Hutton as in tolerable preserva- tion ; l as late as 1831 they were still traceable all round, 2 and in 1834, when Hamper made a plan of them, 3 they were perfect for three-fourths of the distance, and traceable further. But between 1865 and 1871, several hundred yards of the banks were thrown into the ditches below by the occupier of the land ; and by 1882 only about 300 yards of the ramparts at the southern end of the camp remained intact, together with a few remnants around the northern side. 4 In 1872 the defences at the south end were described by Burgess as consist- ing of a rampart, 20 feet high in parts (measured from the bottom of the fosse), and about 40 to 50 feet in breadth at its base ; outside this was a ditch, beyond which was a second rampart, about half the size of the first ; below this again traces of a third vallum were visible upon the western side. 6 The sections here figured, and which were made by Hamper as far back as 1834, show the inner defences in greater detail. There is an entrance which is apparently ancient at the south end ; a cutting now to be seen through the eastern bank did not exist in 1834. Water still lies in the moat below the inner rampart on the south-west side. After Nadbury, which it somewhat resembles both in its shape and in the form of its defences, this camp is one of the largest of its class in the county. It must once have been a very formidable stronghold ; besides having apparently triple ramparts, it had also doubtless the protection of the swamps and the morasses which would spread out along the still boggy Hutton's B'ham. p. 460. O.S. Map, I in. (1831). ' Preserved in Dugdale's Wanu. (Bloxam's copy). 4 O.S. Map, 6 in. (1882). Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 87, and in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. , PP- 39. 4 Z - 394 SOLIHULL SCALE or TEET SO 6O 9O