Sidney Oldall Addy

“ Perfect uniformity was not to be expected on the part of those who dug out the ditch, nor is perfect accuracy of measurement possible on the part of the surveyor. Consequently the measurements vary a little. But the variation is so small as to be a matter of no importance, and those who carefully examine these earthworks will not doubt that the embankment at Grimesthorpe and the camp on the top of Wincobank wood were made by the same people. They are uniform parts of one plan. ”

“ Nature has in a great measure made the rampart, and the absence of a natural barrier has been supplied by human agency. In the village of Kimberworth the course of the ridgeway can only be traced by the footpath which goes along the east side of the churchyard [7] and leads to a conspicuous part of the way known as Barber Balk. Here there is an artificial and not a natural bank or ridge, though the way still maintains the highest ground. An old packhorse lane runs upon the bank, which resembles a little railway embankment, the average breadth of the top being from six to eight feet. ”

“ Let us now enquire whether any light has been thrown upon these ancient earthworks by the names which they bear, or by the names of places adjacent thereto. We may at once dismiss such names as "Roman Rig" as modern fancies, and as quite unknown until the present century. The name Wincobank is rather striking, and this word resolves itself into three parts. "Bank" is the ridge or continuous mound which goes up from Grimesthorpe to the camp at the top of the wood, and descends on the opposite side. ”

“ As these holes are deeply cut, and as the knife is in no part thicker than a five-shilling piece, the wonder is how, in such a hard material as flint, the holes were cut at all, for the division between the two cavities is very thin. So smooth are the cavities that one would hardly suppose that mere chipping could produce them even in the hands of the most cunning artificer. ”

“ In some places the height of the bank measured on the slope from the bottom of the ditch—which is only faintly marked—on the south-east side is from seven to eight feet; it is rather less in others. The ground has here been long cultivated, and the ditch must once have been much deeper. ”

“ The ditch seems big enough to have supplied the necessary earth for the throwing up of the embankment. The cultivation of land has destroyed the continuity between this earthwork and the steep ridgeway which goes from the bottom of the hill to the top of Wincobank wood. ”

“ The men who knew it by that name were far more likely to be right than those who of late years have called it "the Roman Rig."
We have seen that to the north of Kimberworth the ridge-way is known as Barber Balk. About a mile to the west of it are Barber Wood and Walkworth Wood. This word Barber seems to give a clue to the origin of the earthwork. The same word occurs in Barber Nook, near Crookes, where it will be remembered that stone hatchets and other prehistoric remains have been found, [17] and where a tradition about a "Roman road" exists, or has existed. ”

“ In a previous chapter it was suggested that the Cimbri made the Bar Dike, and another entrenchment in Bradfield. There is an earthwork in Eckington, eight miles to the south of Kimberworth, which is called Dane Balk, and this would appear to point to the Danish, meaning Cimbric, origin of these banks. This name, as well as Danes Bank, which, as we have seen, was applied to some part of the ridgeway in 1695, reminds us of the Dannevirke, or Danish wall, the great bank or entrenchment between Schleswig and Holstein, which runs across the Danish peninsula from sea to sea. ”