MONUMENT NO. 202270

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DESCRIPTION

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Earthwork remains of a raised 45 metre square platform, probably representing the site of a 13th to 14th century fortified manor house. There is also evidence for fishponds and probable evidence for medieval depopulation. Some medieval pottery and animal bones have been found.

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(ST 71301500) Castle (NR) (Site of) (NAT). (1)

(18) PLATFORM (713150), on the N. side of a small valley 300 yds. S.W. of the church, is said to be the remains of a 'castle'
(Hutchins III, 667). Nothing survives except a few indeterminate
scarps and mounds, and a platform 45 yds. square and about 1/2 ft. high. There is no evidence of a medieval castle; and remains more probably represent a former manor house, perhaps with turrets, as shown on a plan in Wilts. Record Office (Stourhead papers, 929). Mediaeval pottery has been found on the site (O.S. records).

(19) FISH POND AND LEAT (713149), in the bottom of a small steep-sided valley 330 yds. S.W. of the church, lie immediately S of (18). The L-shaped pond, now dry, is 100 yds. long, 30 yds
wide and up to 10ft. deep. At the E. or down-stream end are the abutments of a former dam. S. of the pond and cut into the valley side is a water channel or leat, 3 ft. to 5 ft. wide and up to 2 1/2 ft. deep. (2-3)

The site is represented by a 45.0m. square platform vaguely discernible at ST 71251500 (A). The position is not defensive and the building was probably a fortified manor house, common in the 13th to 14th century. Some fragments of gritty black Medieval ware and animal bones were found in a small digging into the side of the pond 50.0m. south of the site.

The rectangular fishpond centred at ST 71251496 was probably fed at the west end and a pierced bank of earth at the extreme south east corner probably incorporated a sluice and outflow. The site suggests that the fishpond was also a mill-pond but no building structure was found.

Centred at ST 71201500 (b) is a small grass covered area of scarped elongated platforms, well above the pond level and with a south aspect. this is probably evidence of Medieval depopulation. (4)

The L-shaped fishpond has been recently reformed into two separate ponds with a total length of about 180.0m, and the former dam abutments have been destroyed.

ST 71141492 to ST 71381595. The leat (depicted on OS 25"),has been utilised to supply the new ponds, resulting in the terminal
200.0m of the original water-channel becoming defunct. (5)

ST 7131151500 Site of (NAT) Castle (NR). (6)

Listed as a possible castle by Cathcart King. (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1890

( 2) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1970 An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset. Volume three : central Dorset [in two parts]

1970 Page(s)18-19

( 3) Aerial photograph

APs (RAF CPE/UK/1974 2155-6 11.4.47)

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 NVQ 22-JUL-55

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F2 GB 16-AUG-78

( 6) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 25" 1927

(7) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

Page(s)130

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