ANCIENT EARTHWORKS drawbridge, the moat continuing till it joined the southern arm of the defensive work. It is worth noting that slight as is the elevation of the castle site it is a conspicuous object owing to the low level of the adjacent land. A road immediately north of the castle is claimed as a pre-Roman trackway by some antiquaries, but we are not aware of supporting evidence. Walmer : Church and Court Moats. — Pritchard's History of Deal (1864) says 'round Walmer church ... on a rise is a deep fosse.' So far as can easily be seen now there is but a ditch, or fosse, on the south side of the churchyard, and this was made only some sixty years ago ! Yet Hasted found in his time ' a deep single fosse around,' and various writers have thought the spot a Roman camp. Enquiry of the ' oldest inhabitant ' and careful examination of certain traces reveal the fact that there truly was a fosse, but instead of surrounding only the churchyard, part of its ramifications enclosed the castle, or mansion, remains of which are in Walmer Court grounds. Thus we find this reputed ' camp ' to be one of those enclosures, common in feudal days, which guarded the hall and the church of a Norman lord.' Westenhanger. — See Stanford. Hi f/ Keepers J C CotTages o SCALE OFFECT ^ N 100 Z(^0 300 ANCIENT VILLAGE SITES [Class H] Aylesford : Preston Woods. — Just within the parish boundary (half a mile south-west of Barming station) is the slight entrenchment named on the new Ord- nance Survey a ' camp,' ^..^.;J^V,V".',";;;■,;;,v,v,;',',,^',, l^ but more like the bound- ary of a wood. It stands upon ground practically level with the land, and the position has no natural defence. The entrenchments are very slight, as will be seen by the plan and sections, and granting a perfect ram- part and ditch on all sides, the base is so ex- ceedingly narrow, only 20 ft., that it would have little strength. Leaving aside the ' camp ' theory, which seems quite untenable, • The place was held by tli Entrenchment in Preston Woods, Aylesford. Aubeiville family in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 435
