Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/516

 J t"-* Chuteh A— fTNrf— B N =2 o G-t^r-n— H A HISTORY OF KENT (2) A court-yard or bailey, the rampart and ditch of which is more or less perfect. The ditches of the two enclosures may have once run into one another, but there is ^ ^^^:^ .^ .+ _ no sign of the junction. W atling Street runs two miles distant on the north, the Pilgrim Way three and a half miles south. T HO R NHAM (or Thurnham) : BiNBURy Castle. — This work, situated about four miles north-east of Maidstone, consists of a mound or raised enclosure, deeply fossed, and a court-yard, standing about 520 ft. above sea-level, with slightly higher land on the south-east, and some- what lower on the north-west. The position is without natural defence, being tableland of the North Downs. The artificial oval-shaped mount is 35 ft. above the lowest part of the ditch which surrounds it, and the summit forms a practically level platform. Upon the west a slight outer rampart, or scarp, appears to have formed part of the original plan, and may have extended much further round. A court-yard protected by a stone wall existed on the south-east ; portions of the wall still remain, 2 J ft. thick, also a small tower, but there is no trace of the rampart and ditch usually found with strongholds of the mount and court type. It will be noticed that Thornham, or Goddard's Castle, also consisted of a mount and court-yard, the latter protected by a stone wall instead of a rampart and ^^ .^J Ancient- stone SCAUeOF FEET 100 ZOO 300 Stockbury Castle. ^5 / s^^^«>Q Holland /bw«n. ,^ fhrm housQ' ^ V<> l/^ftci^ntJtbnav^ft. ditch ; hence these two places show a form of defence which may be a link between strong- holds of the mount and court type (E) and those having now a mount only (Class D), for the stone walls which protected the courts of the latter, if they ever existed, would rapidly be carried away when the castles were destroyed. It is hard to 422 SCALE or FEET »oo eoo 300 iNBURY Castle, Thornham.