Anyway, this is a picture of part of the remaining ditch and earth mound. Not much if you don't know what it is, but pretty cool once you do know.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Beyond the Pale
Today we stopped briefly in a little parking lot which turned out to be much more interesting than we anticipated. It was on the edge of the old Ashdown Forest, which in Henry VIII's time was a royal hunting preserve. The forest was completely surrounded by a ditch with an earth mound, with a fence, called a 'pale' atop it. This kept the animals in, and the people out - beyond the pale. The enclosure had 40+ gates (for people on horses) and hatches (for people on foot) and the names of the villages all around still have 'hatch' and 'gate' in their names:Coleman's Hatch, Chuck Hatch, Chelwood Gate etc.
Anyway, this is a picture of part of the remaining ditch and earth mound. Not much if you don't know what it is, but pretty cool once you do know.
Anyway, this is a picture of part of the remaining ditch and earth mound. Not much if you don't know what it is, but pretty cool once you do know.
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1 comment:
Totally cool, indeed! Amazing that it is still there, 500 years later.
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