otherwise Meole Brace, is one mile south of the town. {216} The church
stands on a little knoll above the Rea brook, and was erected on the site
of an ancient edifice in the year 1800. It is a plain cruciform
building, with a tower rising from the roof at the west end.
From this place many agreeable walks branch off in the direction of
Kingsland, Sutton, and the Sharpstones. Near the latter place, at
Bayston Hill, is an earthwork of an irregular form, which seems to have
been surrounded on all sides but the east by two fosses, the abrupt
formation of the ground in that direction rendering such a protection
unnecessary. The entrance was no doubt from the Stretton road at the
west. The _double_ entrenchment admits a probability that it belonged to
the Anglo-Saxons, but it is difficult to distinguish between their
encampments and those of the Danes, both forming their camps nearly alike
and on elevated spots. The present site possesses every advantage for a
military post of observation to the adjoining country. The residents in
the vicinity designate it by the common appellation of the “Buries,” and
which appears to have escaped the notice of former topographers.