Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/491

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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS Judd's Hill. — See Ospringe. Kenardington. — The casual visitor to this neighbourhood would find it hard to realize that in ancient days the main stream of the Rother flowed north of the Isle of Oxney, leaving a tidal estuary south and north-east of Appledore, and finding its way to the sea at Romney.' On the shore of the estuary referred to was placed the camp, within which Kenardington church nov/ stands. The fragments of this camp are poor in the extreme ; of its eastern side there remain 600 ft., but it evidently extended southward into the adjoining arable field, where it has been ploughed out of sight, while the piece still visible is no more than an eight foot scarp on the slope towards the valley. I! 'A Kenardington Camp. The destruction of the southern extension is greatly to be regretted, as, according to the view given by Hasted, it presented interesting features ; the rampart was carried in a loop up the slope, evidently to cover the access by water from the sea ; and below, near the stronghold, is shown a low mount and causeway, the latter seemingly leading to a similar but larger mount in the marsh below.' » See M. Burrows, Cinque Ports (1895), and in further confirmation of the changed conditions may be mentioned the statement that so late as the sixteenth century a Spanish vessel found its way to the shore and bombarded Kenardington Church. Tradition tells of the discovery of a boat beneath the soil in the now dry valley. = See E. Hasted, Hist, of Kent (1790) iii. We are inclined to think the mounts and 'causeway' later than the stronghold, and possibly part of a dam used in ' inning ' the marsh land. 397