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A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE Sections of the ramparts from the above-named plan are here given, from which it will be seen that the interior area of the camp is raised above the neighbouring ground level some 6 to 8 feet upon the north and west sides, and as much as 40 feet on the south along the banks of the river ; the remnants of a vallum are shown upon the top of the works on the north and west sides, but no ditches ; the latter have probably been filled up at some time or other by WAPPENBURY, local cultivators of the soil, about A.Q. 1830 after Bloxam I t will thus be seen that the church and the few houses which stand near it are in the interior of a roughly parallel- sided oblong entrenchment ; the churchyard lies rather south of the central point of this, and from it three ancient roads, now in two instances little more than field lanes, take their courses approximately in the direc- tion of west, north and east ; according to the old Bloxam plan there appears to have been a fourth road leading south to the river, passing by some buildings to the south-west of the church. These earthworks were considered by Bloxam, Burgess and others, to be Roman, 1 on account of the oblong form of the area enclosed, and of the position of the church and roads radiating therefrom ; but unless we accept a vague report of Roman tiles having been found to the south of the churchyard, no discoveries of antiquities appear to have been made here to give support to the theory, and the works may possibly be of very much later date. WARWICK. The magnificent mediaeval castle here is built upon ancient earthworks of the moated mount and court type. These origi- nal fortifications have probably been more or less modified by the erection of the later defences of masonry, but the great mount itself remains unaltered, and is a very prominent object, and the ditches pro- tecting its courtyard are still distinctly traceable. The site of this ancient fortress is upon a rocky elevation over- hanging the north-west bank of the river Avon. The high grassy mount which formed the ' keep ' rises at the south-west of the earthworks, and about 120 feet away from the river ; it is conical in shape and, as usual, truncated at the top ; it measures about 200 feet in diameter at its base, and about 60 feet at its summit ; remnants of the surrounding fosse are still to be seen, more distinctly upon the western side. The walls of the present castle now enclose a portion of the mount, and the Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 87, and in Arch. Journ. vol. xxxiii. (1876), p. 374. ; Bloxam in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Tram. (1875), p. 31. 402