Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/668

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK to whether it was of the Roman period or the mount of a Saxon stronghold within the older lines. Chevington (xliii, i6). — Chevington Hall Farm, north of the church, 4J miles south-west from Bury, Around this farm-house are the remains of an exceedingly strong camp of irregular plan, the western side being angular and the eastern semicircular. The northern side consists of a fosse 60 ft. wide and 14 ft. deep, gradually increasing in magnitude towards the north- west. At a distance of 250 ft. from that angle is the commencement of a heavy vallum, rising 9 ft. high from the interior, with a summit 26 ft. broad ; from this point is an escarpment of 28 ft. into a fosse 104 ft. wide, and having a counterscarp of 1 4 ft. On the western side is a continuation of the vallum of the same height, but of narrower dimensions, with the same scarp and counterscarp throughout, except at the south-west corner, where the escarp- ment is 32 ft. The normal measurements of vallum and fosse are continued along the south to the margin of a large pond, where they have been destroyed. To the cast of the pond the original line of the vallum may yet be traced in a broad semicircular bank 3 ft. high ; but the fosse has been filled up and a roadway occupies part of its site. This stronghold was afterwards utilized for the protection of a country house of the abbots of Bury which was built within it. Clare (Ixxi, 3). — On the north-east of Clare Common, 6 miles east from Haverhill, are extensive remains of a camp, irregularly quadrangular in plan, Camp at Clau 588