THE VILLAGE OF MEOLE,
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.
Two miles beyond this spot is the pleasant