Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/331

 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS It is the fond belief of some that Ethelfleda erected the castle mount when she obtained the burh at Leicester in A.D. 918, while others take the word burh to refer to this castle, in which case it would be attributable to the Danes. There is, however, no evidence to warrant the assumption that the castle was con- structed before the days of Norman influence, pos- sibly in the time of Ed- ward the Confessor, when we know some few such earthworks were thrown up by Normans of his court. Though the vast majority of the works of the mount and bailey type date from post-Con- quest days this may be one of the few exceptions referred to above. 1 SHACKERSTONE (xxix, 6). Five miles north- west from Market Bos- worth, on the north of the church, close to the roadside, is a bold mount with a flat top, and an escarpment of 38 ft. with an inclined ascent from the north around the west side. This has been surrounded by a fosse, but only a portion remains on the south side ; it is 22 ft. wide, with a counter- scarp of 8 ft. Around it has evidently been a well -fortified bailey, but later works have dealt severely with it ; at the present time a flat area lies to the south-west of the mount and fosse; the north and east have another area at a lower level, at the south of which is the fragment of a vallum, while at other points are the remains of ditches. It would thus appear that the base-court was situated on the south- west and continued, in a more limited degree, around the other sides of the mount. These remains may have inclosed two courts, but this cannot now be decided with any certainty. WHITWICK THE CASTLE (xvi, 16). Five and a half miles east from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, on the east side of the church, is a mount and bailey fort upon the top of a precipitous hill, the confines of which govern the elliptical shape of the court. No ramparts remain, indeed no other defence was needed than the natural escarpment which at the south is 33 ft. and on the north-east, 86 ft., a stream surrounding three-fourths of its base, viz. west, north, and east. Along the precipitous eastern side an approach rises to the summit, well defended by the height of the escarpment above its 1 Leland says : ' There was afore the Conquist a Collegiate Chirch of prebends Infra castrum.' Itinerary, i, 1 6. 26l LEICESTER CASTLE