Page:VCH Derbyshire 1.djvu/479

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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS included an amber bead, part of a bronze brooch, and a great variety of Anglo - Saxon pottery fragments, showing a long-sustained occupa- tion of the burh that was probably constructed be- tween the departure of the Romans and the coming of the Nor- mans. 1 Unfortunately, the making of new roads and the building of villas has completely blotted out the interesting series of earthworks round the castle, since the drawing of the plan. 8 9. The site of HORSLEY CASTLE (xlv. 10), of whose existence and repairs there are re- cord evidences as early as the latter part of the twelfth century, has been so long used for quarry purposes and afterwards planted over, that very little proof of the former extent of this once im- portant stronghold can now be obtained. ' The present ruin formed a portion of the keep, which appears to have been multangular, and apparently constructed on an outcrop of the rock at a considerable elevation above the rest of the castle buildings.' a Several visits to the site made by the writer of this section have failed to elucidate any con- jectural plan either as to stonework or earthwork, save that some of the 1 ' Duffield Castle : its History, Site, and recently found Remains,' by Rev. Dr. Cox. Journ. ofDerb. Arch. Soc. ix. 118-187. Three distinct pre-Norman deposits of pottery fragments and other debris were found in successive layers, as exposed in the trenches. 2 The actual foundations of the Norman keep have been preserved and enclosed, through the generosity of the Hon. F. Strutt and Mr. Herbert Strutt. 8 'Annals of Horston and Horsley,' by Rev. C. Kerry, an article in Derb. Arch. Journ. x. 16-17 (1888). This is the best printed account of Horsley Castle. 383