Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/295

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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS AsHTON Castle Tump, Eye N the stream was caused to wash round the platform. The work is locally said to be the site of a castle. Eye : Ashton Castle Tump. — About 4 miles north-by-east of Leo- minster. This mount is the north-west ending of a bank, some 350 ft. above sea level. The position is naturally strong, except on the south-east. The work may or may not have been used for defensive purposes ; there is little arti- ficial trenching, the fosse on the south-east is slight, and there is very limited space on the summit of the mount. In any case, the work is of little importance. Ashton ' Camp ' lies half a mile to the south-east. Huntington : Little Hengoed. — Four and a half miles south-west of Kington. This small mount, or ' turret tump,' as it is named upon the Ordnance Survey maps, stands about 150 ft. above the River Arrow, which flows half a mile south and east. The work consists of a mount only, small in circumference but of moderate height. There is no fosse or moat, but the slight appearance of a larger base, as shown by the dotted lines. The mount may have apper- tained to a castle, but its purpose is doubtful. Kenderchurch : Howton Mound. — Nine miles south-west of Hereford. This mount or platform stands upon the lowest land in the neighbourhood, the position having no natural defence. The work con- sists of a raised platform 9 ft. high oo;- above the lowest part of the trench which surrounds it, and this trench is now only about a foot deep and hardly to be traced upon the east side. Though the work may have been one of the numerous castle mounts locally called ' tumps,' it appears as much like the site of a moated homestead, perhaps the original Howton Farm. Tradition says it was a burying-place after some engagement at Kilpeck Castle, but there is no fact to support this assertion. It was partially opened in August 1906, but with no definite result. Kington. — Little beyond the name ' Castle Hill ' exists to suggest that a castle occupied the site. The Rev. C. J. Robinson was inclined to believe that a mount encircled by a deep trench existed from ' very early times ' ; but its close proximity to the church suggests origin in later days. Kington : Woodville. — A mile and a half south-south-east of Kington. This work stands upon land about 700 ft. above sea level, the position having no natural defence except that the ground around is " Castles ofHerefs. (1869), 86. 227 Littli Htngoed rarm O- «  Little Hengoed Tump, Huntington HortPan fohfi Howton Mound, Kender- church