Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club.

SECOND FIELD MEETING, FRIDAY, JUNE 28TH, 1895.

WAPLEY CAMP, THE RODD, AND PRESTEIGN.

ON Friday, June 28th, Wapley Camp, The Rodd, and Presteign were visited. By the courtesy of the Great Western Railway authorities the train from Titley Junction to Presteign was stopped at a place called "The Crossing," at the western base of Wapley Hill, on an elevation of about 520 feet. Here the members alighted, and walking up the hill past Highlands Farm (selected for its healthy air and fine scenery, as an occasional resort of the late Miss Frances Ridley Havergal), soon reached the summit.

The highest contour given in the Ordnance Survey maps is 1,000 feet. This contour passes immediately below the southern side of the wall surrounding the Warren House, from the south western angle of which to the top of the highest embankment of the Camp the difference of level was found by aneroid barometer to be one hundred feet, thus making the elevation of 1,100 feet at the summit of the artificial earthworks. From this altitude is displayed a varied broken outline of country, from which, on the Jubilee Bonfire night in 1887, between 50 and 60 bonfires were counted. Commencing from the west, Burva Camp stands conspicuously isolated in the foreground, with the steep heights of Knill Garraway directly on its south. Knill Garraway is the northern end of Rushock Hill, around which winds Offa's Dyke on its western side for the distance of nearly two miles, thence proceeding between Burva and Evenjobb to regain its usual northerly course through Knighton. Beyond Burva the Radnor Forest forms the whole background. The prominent knob called Whimble, 1,965 feet high, is about one mile and a quarter N.N.W. of New Radnor. Bâch Hill, two miles north of New Radnor, has a trigonometrical station at 2,002 feet, and two miles westwards the highest elevation of the Radnor Forest is 2,166 feet. On the day of the Club's visit the distant objects were obscured owing to heavy clouds and rain, but on a clear day the Brecon Beacons, 2,905 5 feet high, can be seen; the Clee Hills, the Clun Forest, the Longmynd range, and other heights in the neighbourhood of Church Stretton, in Shropshire; the Bettws and adjoining hills in Montgomeryshire; May Hill, the summit of which is in Gloucestershire; the Gadr Vawr, 2,630 feet high, in Breconshire, seen over the Black Mountains; the Sugar Loaf, 1,954 feet high, in Monmouthshire, also the Blorenge and Scyrrid; and the Malvern Range very distinctly in Worcestershire.

In Herefordshire the northern extremity of the Black Mountains, near Hay, is seen and their entire range down to the spur, called Hatterall Hill, at their southern extremity. The eastern side of the Black Mountains is situated in Herefordshire; the western boundary line of the county runs along their extreme summit, attaining at its greatest altitude a height of 2,306 feet. Garway, 1,203 feet, Aconbury, 905 feet, and other hills in the foreground are visible. Shobdon Hill wood, about three miles north-east, as the crow flies, attains an elevation of 1,039 feet, and about three miles further north-east is situated the important ancient Camp of Croft Ambrey, 1,000 feet high at the top of the wood, behind Aymestrey. Two miles due north of Wapley Camp, Cole's Hill, in the parish of Kinsham, has a triangulation station elevation of 1,097 feet, and beyond its summit may be seen Harley's Mountain, in the parish of Lingen, interesting from the fact that it is cultivated up to its summit, on which is an Ordnance Survey mark, Centre 1265 3, Surface 1266 6 feet.

As regards the streams of the neighbourhood, shortly after leaving Titley Station the river Arrow is crossed. One of the tributaries of the river Lugg, having its source from the watershed of the Radnor Forest heights immediately above the falls of Water-break-its-neck, flows thence under the name of the Summergill Brook south of New Radnor, becoming at Hindwell, one mile north of Old Radnor, the Hindwell or Endwell Brook, under which name it flows under the roughly scarped heights of Knill Garraway; near Rodd it is crossed by the Titley and Presteign Railway; thence flowing by Upper and Lower Broad Heath, and by Combe, it enters the river Lugg about three miles east of and below Presteign. The charming valley of Kinsham is situated one mile below the junction.

WAPLEY CAMP.

Wapley Camp is more generally known as "The Warren." The Camp is an irregularly-shaped area of twenty-one acres on the summit of an enclosure of 256 acres, walled for the purpose of a rabbit warren, the circumference of the wall being over 2 miles. Some curiosity was aroused by observing numerous branches of oak trees, stripped of their bark, strewed about the enclosure. Mr. Edwin E. Edwards gave the solution of their presence as follows:-Oak coppice wood is cut out of a portion of the adjoining thirteen acre wood, called Cwm Wood, as food for the rabbits. The bark forms not only food for the rabbits, but is useful food, due to its astringent properties. Cwm Wood was allotted, with the grant of the Warren, to an Earl of Oxford.

The Club was allowed to visit " The Warren " by the permission of the proprietor, Mr. J. Charlton Parr, of Staunton Park.

The connection of Wapley Camp with the numerous ancient lines of defensive works extending from the Herefordshire Beacon through the Bromyard district by Thornbury, and the Leominster district by Croft Ambrey, is so fully described in the address delivered by the Rev. James Davies in May 1873 (see Transactions, 1873, page 59) that it is unnecessary to add further remarks upon its importance as a military post of occupation, and its connection with contiguous defensive earthworks in the country of the Silures. The plan

opposite page 60 of the volume referred to shows the lines of defence as follows:-On the eastern side there are as many as five entrenchments. extending as far as the main entrance to the Camp on its southern side; from the main entrance along the western side the entrenchments are reduced to three in number, whilst on the northern side there is but a single line of parapet with a trench, the access upon this side being difficult and up a very steep acclivity. In Rev. Davies' account there is no notice made of three mounds situated within the Camp, running east and west, near the perennial spring. These mounds from their solidity and age are very suggestive of sepulchral tumuli. Lower down the hill again, near its southern base, are three similar mounds, running in a north to south direction. The Warren is a capital landmark of the neighbourhood, being bare of trees with the exception of a solitary Yew tree growing on the top of the rampart at a distance of about forty yards west of the southern entrance.

References to Wapley Camp will be found in Camden's Britannia, Vol. III. of 1806, p. 84, and in Archæologia Cambrensis IV., 4, page 338. For the Ordnance Survey Map, see Herefordshire, XI., N. W. on the scale of six inches to one mile.

Whilst our party was engaged in the examination of the large ramparts and ditches a heavy shower of rain caused their dispersal in various directions, and spoiled the prospects of the entomologists. The dark green fritillary, Argynnis aglaia was seen, unusually early; the small tortoiseshell, Vanessa urticæ; the painted lady, Pyrameis cardui.-N.B. this species rarely appears until the end of July or early in August; and the small heath, Canonympha pamphilus, was very abundant. On descending from the Camp, the handsome larvæ of the mullein moth, Cucullia verbasci, were very conspicuous.

On the eastern side of the enclosure the Stagshorn Club-moss, Lycopodium clavatum, was found in abundance, a dwarf representation of the oldest of terrestrial plants which made their appearance in the Silurian period, and which, in the Carboniferous period, attained the stature of forest trees.

GEOLOGY.

Those members who sought shelter near the exposure of Ludlow rocks within the Camp were fortunate enough to hear Mr. W. H. Banks make remarks on the Geology of the district. We have not however been favoured with any written paper for publication; as Mr. Banks affirms that there is nothing new to be added to what has already been published. Leaving the Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire at a distance of about two miles and a half from Titley Junction Railway Station the Ludlow Rocks are entered, which here extend for a width of about half a mile. At Bradford the Wenlock shales are superficial, upon Wapley Hill the strata of Ludlow Rocks are inclined to the south. For many miles north-east, and west, are grey calcareous sandy beds, in some places mixed with gravel, whilst in a southerly direction all that is visible to the eye to the range of the Black Mountains is the Old Red Sandstone.

The following references may be made for Geological features in the outlying district. Woolhope Transactions, Vol. 1854, page 11, in the Address of the Rev. T. T. Lewis. Vol. 1861, page 7, Address of Mr. R. W. Banks.