Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/293

 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS BucKTON Tump Combe Tump wash round or at flood times be caught and dammed up ; the eastern portion of the moat has been filled up to form a croquet lawn, and other portions are also more or less destroyed. The mill is probably of ancient date, and the race, which is a cutting from the Teme, five-eighths of a mile west, was made both to fill the castle ditch and work the mill, a common custom with the Normans. Castle Frome. — Seven miles north-west of Ledbury. A small mount formerly called Castle Trump is at the northern end of Camp Coppice. The Rev. C. J. Robinson '* describing this earthwork, mentions faint traces of a stream-fed moat around the mount, and there is a sunken way of approach of great depth. Castle Frome was granted to Walter de Laci for his services to William the Conqueror, and it is possible that this grassy mount is the site of his keep. Combe Tump. — ^Two miles and a quarter east-by-south of Presteigne. This work stands upon land a few feet above the level of Hind- well Brook, which flows into the River Lugg. Combe Tump is named as a tumulus upon the Ordnance Survey maps, but its position on low land, near to the river, and the absence of other burial mounds in the neighbourhood class it with the defensive mounts which abound in the district. The position commands the immediate low land on the north, west, and east. Wapley Hill Camp, probably a mighty stronghold of an early race, and i,ioo ft. above sea level, is about half a mile to the south. Cusop Castle. — On the border of Brecknockshire, less than a mile south-east of Hay, some 450 ft. above sea level, and 40 ft. to 50 ft. above the three streams which meet below and flow west into the River Wye, is the earthwork known as Cusop Castle. The position is natu- rally defended on the south by the fall of the ground to the streams. The entrenchment consists of a fosse, the ballast from it being thrown inward to form a rampart, except upon the south, where, the hill-side forming a natural protection, a scarp only has been cut. The inclosed portion stands only a few feet above the ground outside, and no sign of masonry is visible, but Duncumb says, ' in the centre are quantities of loose IT t + Church ^^?f'«.-:l 4^

Cusop Castle " Tie Castles of Herefordshire (1869), 62, and see Trans. Woolhope Field Club (1893-4), 184. Mr. Robin- son also mentions a deed (probably of the 12th or 13th century) wherein are described certain lands ^ infra ballivam castri de Froma Castri.' 225 29