Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/209

 9* s. vi. S.PT. i, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 171 selves now rare. The summary of his paper at Leicester printed in the Athenaeum of 11 August dicf not show that any of his six classes of fortification covered the earthen defences of towns, a very important division which should not be lost sight of. Such defences were the only "walls" of some towns to a comparatively late date—-as, for instance, at New Sarum, whose foundation only took place in the thirteenth century. It would be instructive but difficult to trace these simple defences down from great cities like York, through towns like Lidford and Wallingford, to rural villages. When I visited Ongar, years ago, I noticed apparent remains of a large outer enclosure beyond the base court of the mound; and although I failed to trace it on the side of the church, I suppose MR. GOULD has been more successful. But for aught we know such enclosures might be earlier than the moated mounds we now find associated with them, as the fortifications of York (in part at least) are undoubtedly earlier than the mound on which Clifford's Tower stands. At Castle Acre, for instance, the enclosure of the village is reputed Roman and earlier than the castle mound, though I confess I have always entertained doubts. The situation on a Roman road, and the relics which have been discovered (though not of a structural nature, I gather), leave little doubt of the Roman occupation of the site, but no more prove the banked enclosure to be Roman than the much more important remains at Maiden Castle, Dorset, prove the Roman origin of the great camp in which they were excavated. A very similar instance may be cited in Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Here, out- side the curvilinear courts of the castle, but resting on them, is a very regular rectangle of bank and ditch, within which the tine Norman church stands, though most of the little village is now outside it. There is also the case of Pleshey, Essex, where a large outer enclosure round the village is reputed earlier than the castle. At Ludgershall, Wilts, is a fragment of bank joining the castle works, but apparently forming no part of them, which was in all probability for the defence of the town. Such works as these would naturally enclose the parish church, but they are not within my definition of a castle. The probability is that the castle was in most cases of later foundation than the church, as is indicated in some instances by the fact that the church occupies ground stronger by nature than the site of the castle. Where a parish church stands within the castle works proper, I should suspect it to be a castle chapel to which a parish has been assigned since its foundation. J. A. RUTTEB. Archdeacon Stonehouse's ' History of the Isle of Axholme' supplies the following information on the subject of the moated mound at Owston. There can be no doubt that on the site of the mound stood the castle that was built by the Mowbrays, and that where the parish church now stands is well within the bounds of the castle yard. There are also remains of two or three moats, the innermost one of which is nearly intact: the churchyard has filled up the north side of it, but the rest of it is well preserved. The outermost moat is bounded by the road, which encloses about two acres of land north of the old church- yard, and part of which is now the new churchyard. The hprsepond on the roadside east of the church is part of the old moat and goes by the name of the "Wire." I am told that at Winterton there is a pond—the remains of a moat—which goes By the same name. " Wire," I under- stand, means spring. In grave - digging the sexton has found a quantity of stones and tiles which are remains of the old castle and its buildings. In the churchyard south of the church there are traces of an old tiled pavement leading to the castle hill. It would be interesting to know what there is in the mound, for evidently there are ruins thereof some kind. Young trees that have sprung up at times have all failed on its soil, which shows there must be something in the soil to prevent them striking root. Local tradition and history, as well as the remains found on the site, quite establish the fact that the Mowbrays built a castle here. Not only that, they built most of the churches in the isle, and also the Carthusian Monastery at Low Melwood (two miles from here). This is clearly shown by Archdeacon Stonehouse in his book. But although the mound and moats can all be accounted for by the exist- ence of the castle, there seems to be no reason why there should not have been some heathen temple on the same site years before the castle was built. It is an open question whether the church or the castle was the first to be built. In either case we have to account for the church being within the castle yard. It might have originated thus. A heathen temple was built on the spot in olden times, the situation being particularly good for several reasons^it was close to the Trent, which then had a different course, and