ANCIENT EARTHWORKS (i) The ' King's Ditch,' Bedford. — The Chronicle * tells us that King Edward ' went with the army to Bedanforda, and gained the burgh, . . . and he remained there four weeks and commanded the burg on the south side of the river to be built (atimbrari) before he went thence.' This was in 919. Previously the town, with whatever fort commanded the ford, was on the north side. Mr. G. T. Clark assumes that this entry implied the rearing of a mound, for which there is no evidence, nor even a tradition. There is however a work on the south of the river which may fairly be attributable to this month of labour. It is a very ancient cutting which describes a circuit from a point on the river to the west of the town to a point on the east, about half a mile dis- tant. It is shown in Speed's map of 16 10. The river still runs through this cutting, and in flood time it is full to the brim, 10 or 12 feet across. In recent times it has been shortened on the east, but the old course is still strongly marked, and flood water takes possession of this too. Some traces of an interior rampart are here still visible. This work goes by the name of the ' King's Ditch,' and when stockaded would form an effective defence for Edward's new garrison. The ditch is carefully maintained and is a notable boundary of property. It has also been suggested that this cutting may have been a water- way made at the time of Henry the Third's great siege of Bedford Castle in 1224, but this siege is described with so much minuteness in the old record 2 that an important detail such as the making of this ' ditch ' must have been recorded. Moreover it is evident that the besiegers with their engines were drawn round the castle very closely, and a comparatively remote water-way could have been of little service. It should also be noted that two Norman churches, one very early, stood half-way between river and ditch, on the line of the main road to the bridge. (2) Tempsford. — Two years later the East Anglian Danes abandoned Huntingdon, their headquarters, and moved up the Ouse to Tempsford, where they ' wrought T E M PS FO R D a work ' and established themselves. At this , , 1 /- 1 T 1 • ■ SCALE OF FEET place, on the south or the Ivel, near its junc- > > > < ,^ 5 ^ 5^ tion with the Ouse, there remains a strong vV ,miu.,i, little fort, which all our earthwork authori- l^"'"^'^! ties assign to this occupation. Mr. 1. C ^r s. 'Cvl^ If Gould says : ' This example is of great value, Si | =? ~ 7= '~ as we know the date of its construction. ^IIHIfWMJWf Mr. J. H. Round describes it as ' an advanced ««i«i«"u«'» post of the Danes.' * It stands about 200 yards from the former bank of the river, and is oblong in shape, being about 1 20 feet by 84 feet within the ramparts, which remain on three sides to a height of 1 1 or 12 feet above the bottom of the moat. The moat 1 Anglo-Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), i. 192. 2 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 86-9. 3 Journ. Brit. Arch. Asm. 'Early Defensive Earthworks,' p. 22. 4 Quart. Review, July 1S94. I ' 281 36
