Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/523

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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS MOATED ENCLOSURES WITH STRONGER DEFENSIVE WORKS [Class G] BouGHTON Malherbe : CoLBRiDGE Castle. — At Coldbridge, or Colbridge, Farm,' about three miles south of Lenham, are the extensive moats which mark the site of the early castle of the Peyforers. Here, as in many Kentish examples, water was made to play a principal part in the scheme of defence. The site is on the slope of the land towards 5/>c of Colbridge Casfte, Boughron Malherbe. Moat at Colbridge Farm, Boughton Malherbe (on site of Castle). the south-east, and a stream was dammed and partially diverted to fill the moats with water. Though it is not apparent that the outer moat extended sufficiently to form a second defence on all sides, there are indefinite traces of its further continuation here and there. The inner moat which protected the keep is well defined. Cooling Castle. — This is a stronghold of a class to which belong Brandon in Warwickshire, Old Ingarsby in Leicestershire, Braybrooke in Northamptonshire, and others. It stands low, less than half a mile from the marsh land of the Thames, and within two miles of the river, possessing no natural defence other than water may have provided. The defences of the castle consisted chiefly of stone walls and water moats, 1 The ancient name seems to have been Colnucbregga. A licence to crenellate was granted 7 Edward II. 429