Page:VCH Warwickshire 1.djvu/432

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A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE wide and some 12 feet deep, with a causeway 30 feet broad across it, which connects the enclosure with a flat elevated area, covering about 24 acres, lying beyond it ; this area has, he goes on to say, sloping sides showing signs of cut terraces, which are probably the weather-worn remains of former ramparts. He mentions that he was informed by a native that there were some cut stones remaining in a corner of the interior area, thirty years previous to his visit, which appeared to have formed part of an underground chamber. This camp is somewhat similar in appearance to the one at Beausale, 4! miles away. 1 On Yarningale Common, an elevated promontory about a mile north-east of Barmoor Wood, Mr. Burgess discovered a low double mound surrounded by a fosse, situated on the north-west shoulder of the hill ; the base of the larger mound he described as about 70 feet in diameter, and the ' inner central one not more than 9 feet.' The fosse he measured as 1 1 feet wide. 2 CORLEY (6 miles south-west of Nuneaton.) There are remains of a considerable fortress in this parish, on the hill called, in consequence, the Burrow Hill. They are situated upon a sloping plateau on the top of the hill, facing north-east, and at an altitude of some 500 feet above the level of the sea, and from which there is a magnificent prospect on every side. The shape of the camp is an irregular square, containing an area of about 10 acres; it is defended partly by natural rocky precipices, and partly by artificial earthworks. The latter are now much weather-worn, and also altered by cultivation ; they consist mainly of a rampart, vary- ing from 10 to barely 3 feet in height, and about 30 feet wide at its base; no accompanying fosse is now visible, except on the side near the valley ; there is also a long ditch on the south-west separate from the main works. In the interior is a pit, fed by a spring, which would afford a good water supply. There appears to have been but one ancient entrance, that on the north-west side by the rocks ; the opening at the north-east angle has evidently been cut in later days to form a road from the field within the area to the farmhouse below. Mr. Ribton-Turner, who was the first to report upon these remains in detail, describes further traces of ancient works, as follows : * Two escarpments with terraces and trenches,' the former ' from 40 to 60 feet in height, on the curved front of the steep declivity overlooking the valley, and extending some ten chains or more on each side of the main works ' ; he also says that ' there are indications of other smaller fortifi- cations in the fields on this side of the hill, running nearly parallel with the rock, but time and the plough have left few traces of the original features.' s Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 86, in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. (1873), p. 41, and m Arch. Journ. xxxiii. (1876), pp. 369-70 ; Timmins's Warw. pp. 6c-6 ; Turner's Shaks. Land, p. 195. Burgess in Arch. Journ. vol. xxxiii. (1876), p. 370, and in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Tram. (1872), p. 86. ' Turner's Shaks. Land, p. 252. 370