Page:VCH Warwickshire 1.djvu/437

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ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS reduced in volume, which run at the bottom of valleys cut on either side of it, probably once added to the natural defences of the site. 1 FILLONGLEY (7 miles north-west of Coventry.) In this elevated village are two earthworks, one bearing the name of the ' Castle Hills ' and the other called ' Castle Yard.' The first named, ' Castle Hills,' is a small and well preserved en- trenchment on a farm known as the ' Bury Fields.' It is situated about three-quarters of a mile north-east of the church, on low-lying ground by the side of a small stream. FILLONGLEY, Castle Hills. SCALE orFEEf too zoo 300 FILLONGLEY Castle Yard SCALE OF FEET 100' zoo soe The little fortress is nearly oval in form and covers an area of about an acre. Its defences consist of a strong rampart running round a raised internal plateau with a deep ditch beyond. The ditch or moat was probably once filled with water from the stream which still runs through it on the south-west side. There are remnants of further artificial banks in the field to the south, but they are now worn and indistinct in plan. The site was called ' Old Fillongley ' in Henry the Third's time. 3 1 Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), p. 83 ; Bloxam in ditto (1875), p. 31 ; Burgess in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. (1873), p. 38 ; Turner's Shaks. Land, p. 293. ' Dugdale's Warw. p. 725, quoting Testa de Nevill; Bloxam in B'ham. Phil. Inst. Tram. vol. iv. no. xvi. p. 186 ; Burgess' Warw. p. 5 ; Burgess in B'ham. and Mid. Inst. Arch. Trans. (1872), pp. 85, 88. 375