Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/665

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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS The scheme for the classification of these earthworks may be enumerated in full, although no examples of Classes A, B, and H exist in Suffolk ; it may in part explain those types which are lacking : — Class A. — Fortresses partly inaccessible, by reason of precipices, cliffs, or water, additionally defended by artificial works, usually known as promontory fortresses. Class B. — Fortresses on hill-tops with artificial defences, fol/owing the natural line ef the hill ; or, though usually on high ground, less dependent on natural slopes for protection. Class C. — Rectangular or other simple inclosures, including forts and towns of the Romano-British period. Class D. — Forts consisting only or a mound with encircling ditch or fosse. Class £. — Fortified mounds, either artificial or partly natural, with traces of an attached court or bailey, or of two or more such courts. Class F. — Homestead moats, such as abound in some lowland districts, consisting of simple inclosures formed into artificial islands by water moats. Class G. — Inclosures, mostly rectangular, partaking of the form of F, but protected by stronger defensive works, ramparted and fosscd, and in some instances provided with outworks. Class H. — Ancient village sites protected by walls, ramparts or fosses. Class X. — Defensive works which fall under none of these headings. Class T. — ^Tumuli. In Class C are seventeen examples, for the most part difHcult to trace. It is probable that many others have been utilized for the making of moats at a later period, but if that is the case they have passed beyond recognition in this division. Of the eight examples in Class D, no one iis particularly noteworthy except Orford, and this most probably would have been classified under Class E, but that every vestigcof a bailey has been destroyed. The mount at Offton is square, and is evidently of a later date than the type which this division was designed to include. The eleven examples of Class E are the most interesting earthworks in the county, and include some that are quite typical. At Clare is the largest mount, and a feature is the northern courtyard, which was indubitably an earlier stronghold adapted to the requirements of the mount castle. The destruction of the southern bailey by the railway and station yard is to be regretted. The works at Haughley are in an exceptionally good state, and at Framlingham the scheme of multiplying the courts and increasing the defences exhibits an interesting development. The Homestead Moats of Class F number five hundred and five. In some of them it would appear that many earlier works are incorporated, especially those of circular or elliptical plan, as in the case of the inner moat at Wattisham Hall. In Class G the most noteworthy among the eleven examples is at Barrow Hall, where a heavy rampart has lined both the inner and outer sides of a broad moat. Class H cannot be said to be represented ; possibly the Warbanks sur- rounded a village site, but further discoveries must be made before it can be determined. Again, at Icklingham, there is said to be the site of an Anglo- Saxon village ; both here and on Cavenham Heath are signs of habitation, but no area can be traced as the borders of a settlement. Among the eighteen miscellaneous works in Class X is nothing of moment ; the origin and intention of ' Oliver's Ditches ' is still enveloped in I 585 74