Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/342

 A HISTORY OF ESSEX in Navestock, but that the word defensum was applied to any enclosure or fenced ground (see Bailey's Dictionary, 1733). We may fairly conclude that so long ago as 1222 the area was producing timber, but whether the earthwork had previously an inde- pendent existence or was simply formed to protect the wood is not apparent. SAFFRON WALDEN : The Repell or Faille Ditches. The Faille, Repell, Peddle or Paigle Ditches which are the remains of a Roman camp or of a British oppidum are situated on ground gently rising from the course of the Slade, a stream once of sufficient volume to give added security to the north of the earthworks. On all sides was probably a rampart of earth with its ditch or moat outside and a slighter ditch within. Of this defensive work only part remains, about 480 feet on the west and 500 feet on the south sides. Buildings, gardens, etc., have largely destroyed the inner ditch and altered the levels of the interior space ; the eastern side of the oppidum is completely covered with build- ings. Within the area was found a large number of skeletons and many objects which had been buried or subsequently thrown aside on the site. 1 The antiquities discovered when the skeletons were unearthed do not fall within our province to describe, as the cemetery is generally thought to belong to the Saxon period, although we consider some of the pottery indicates ' late Celtic ' days, or at all events the influence of the art of that period, in its decoration. However that may be, there is no doubt of the important fact that beneath the burials referred to were found traces of earlier occupants of the site, probably the men who made the early defensive ram- part and moat. LITTLEBURY : Ring Hill Camp. The earthwork is about 1,100 yards in circum- ference, occupies the eastern end of a chalk range on the western side of Lord Bray- brooke's park at Audley End, and covers about 1 8 acres of ground. It is an oval fortifi- cation originally provided with rampart and exterior fosse, but the construction of a drive above the fosse has largely obliterated the inner bank. Though known to 1 H. Ecroyd Smith in Essex Arch. Soc. Trans, n.s. vol. ii. gives a full account of the discoveries, a plan of the cemetery and numerous illustrations of the finds. 280 Hill Camp l.i|-Heburi|. near Audleij End ESSEX u ^sg^sg -v