ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS In the following pages the most important earthworks extant in Warwickshire are described under the names of the parishes where they are found, and these, for facility of reference, are placed in alphabetical sequence. The arrangement under parishes has been adopted, to avoid the confusion which has previously been brought about by various writers calling the same remains by different names. In order to find the account of any earthwork in a particular district, the map must first be consulted for the name of the parish where it is situated, and reference should then be made to the latter in the text. The list does not pretend to be in any sense a complete one ; for the compilation of this much more time would be necessary than is at the writer's disposal. Nevertheless it is hoped that it may serve to give an idea of the field which is open to future explorers, who may, in con- sequence, be attracted to work out the subject in detail. And, further, in view of the rapid destruction of these valuable monuments of the past which is continually in progress, it is also hoped that this article may direct local attention to the existence of these interesting remains, and may thus lead to more care being taken of them in the future. The writer begs to thank many who have given him much valuable information and assistance, including Rev. J. Harvey Bloom, Mr. Jethro A. Cossins, Mr. Alfred Hayes, Mr. Howard S. Pearson, Rev. W. H. Payne-Smith, and especially Mr. I. Chalkley Gould. 1 BARMOOR. See Claverdon. BEAUDESERT (by Henley-in-Arden). On a steep hill called 'The Mount,' just east of the parish church of St. Nicholas, are remnants of the earthworks of an ancient castle ; they consist of a moated mount with traces of courtyards defended by ramparts and ditch (see class E, described p. 351). ' The Mount ' forms a promontory, jutting towards the little river Alne, from a ridge of high ground running north and south ; it rises to an altitude of about 300 feet above sea level. The site is by nature a very strong and commanding one ; from it the Edge Hills and the Malverns may both be plainly seen. The church and the few houses which comprise the village are at the foot of the hill by the side of the stream ; from the church the road winds round the south side of the hill to the entrance of the courtyard on the top of the first elevation. 1 The plans are drawn to scale on the basis of the 25 inch Ordnance Survey of 1883 ; details are frequently filled in from other sources, sometimes from earlier plans and notes showing features which have since become indistinct and obliterated. The following abbreviations are used to indicate publi- cations referred to in the text, viz. : Burgess' Wane. . . = Burgess' Historic Warwickshire (1875). Clark's Mil. Arckit. . = Clark's Medieval Military Architecture (1884). Dugdale's Warw. . = Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (Coventry ed. 1765). Dugdale's Warw. . = Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, with MS. additions by William (Hamper's copy) Hamper, in the British Museum Library. Dugdale's Warw. . = Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, with MS. additions by Matthew (Bloxam's copy) Holbeche Bloxam, F.S.A., in Rugby School Library. Hutton's B'bam. . = Hutton's History of Birmingham (3rd ed. 1806). O.S = Ordnance Survey. Timmins's Warm. . = Samuel Timmins's History of Warwickshire (1889). Turner's Skaki. Land = Ribton-Turner's Shakespeare's Land (1893). 355
