ANCIENT EARTHWORKS given, contained an area of five acres. 1 The deep fosse on the south- west side, in its widest and deepest part, was 35 feet at the top, i8| feet at the bottom, and 7 feet in depth. The fosse on the north-west side, which had been much interfered with by quarrying, was of a different date and far shallower. The construction of a new turnpike road in 1838 altered the configuration of the ground materially on the east side, CODNOR CASTLE. and made the slope much steeper. The circular mound on which the Norman castle was erected proved to be partly artificial, and had been raised some 10 or 12 feet above the natural level of the western part of the field. Six stone implements and a fragment of Celtic pottery indi- cated the earliest occupants of a knoll that commanded an important ford over the Derwent leading to the Wirksworth Valley and its lead mines. 1 Plan by Mr. Greenwell, Derb. Arch. &oc. Journ. ix. plate 7. 381
