Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/358

 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE digging for ferrets on the north side of the ditch dividing the two chief wards. Large fragments of coarse badly burned pottery came out of the river scarp of the inner ward quite lately. In the absence of all evidence of any stone buildings, and as there is no mention in the inquisitions of any castle here, in spite of Leland's ' vestigia castelli,' it seems clear that this was a stronghold entirely of earth and timber. 1 Domesday shows that ' Ulmar of Etone,' or Wolfmar, had his chief seat here before the conquest. Certain unusual features in this earthwork, and the absence of masonry, may suggest a pre-conquest origin. (2) Odell. — The Lysons write : ' At Odell, a mansion-house has been erected on the site of the castle, the ancient seat of the Barons Wahull, which was a ruin in Leland's time.' The house which has incorporated the earlier remains stands on a high mound, but as this has been much modified in recent times its original form cannot be clearly made out. There is a fine stretch of a great rampart proceeding in a straight line from the north of the mound, within which are the grounds, and out- side the high road on the site of the ditch, of which the outer edge can still be traced. To the north, about 80 yards away, stands the church, and round it the roads appear to occupy the lines of entrenchment which connected it with the mound. The site slopes away rapidly to the south, towards the mill on the Ouse. This also appears to have been inside the original enciente. Odell Castle was the head of the important barony ofWahull' (Odell). (3) Sandye Place. — Here too the house stands on a fine mound, of which it is difficult, owing to changes due to the laying out of the grounds, to ascertain the original shape. On the west boundary of the property there appear to be the remains of former enclosing lines, tending towards remains of fishponds near the Ivel, which has here been widened. The church stands quite close on the north-east, and the mill on the river to the south-west. (4) 'John of Gaunt's Hill,' Sutton Park. — This deserted mound, on which stand great elms, one of them girthing 14* feet, is of quite different form from ^A'Vir,,^ an y previously described. v. ... , ^ j!W "'I//, ' It is oval in plan, measur- JOHN OFCAUNTS HILL, || ^ fng i8q feet P by ' II5 fect SUTTON PARK ^ %/< across its diameters. The ground slopes from east to west towards a small tribu- tary of the Ivel, so that the eastern section of the surrounding ditch is much more marked than the western. At its widest the ditch measures 48 feet across by 10 feet in depth, and the mound rises out of it to a height of 16 feet. The surface of 1 It must have been the head of the barony of Beauchamp ' of Eaton.' — J.H.R. 300 SCALE OF FEET ^ <f^ 5T 3