On the eastern side of the Avon is a very ancient earthen work called
Ogbury Camp. Sir Richard Colt Hoare thus describes it:—“On this hill we
recognize the very early and simple handiwork of the Britons, unaltered
by their successors and conquerors, the Romans and Saxons. Here we see a
large tract of sixty-two acres enclosed within a single rampart, and
without any fosse to strengthen it against the attacks of an enemy, and
we perceive within the area the evident marks of enclosures, and only one
entrance to the east. On the northern side the ramparts followed the
windings of the hill, and are interrupted by the plantations of Lord
Malmesbury’s demesne. The area contains sixty-two acres and a quarter.
The circuit of the outer ditch is one mile, one furlong and fifty-five
yards, and the depth of the vallum is thirty-three feet. On the
south-east and west sides the ramparts are very much mutilated. I cannot
consider Ogbury as a camp or work of defence against an invading enemy,
but rather as an asylum or place of refuge, whither the Britons, in times
of danger, retired with their families and herds of cattle. On digging
within this area we could not find any marks of ancient residence, but on
some high ground adjoining the extraordinary verdure of the turf induced
us to dig into the soil, where we immediately found numerous bones of
animals with fragments of the rudest British pottery.”
[Picture: Heale House]