MONUMENT NO. 232823

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Enclosure of unknown date or function. Very unlikely to be a ringwork, motte or bailey. Perhaps a dry version of a moated site.

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[SU 44145450] Intrenchment [OE]. (1)

In Danesgrove Copse is a small, roughly circular, entrenchment, 30 yds across from ditch to ditch. The rampart and ditch are complete, the bank being 5' above the bottom of the ditch. There are a good many flints in the ditch but they are probably from the fields as there is no trace of a wall. There are no entrances but a faint path runs across from N-S. No trace of an attached bailey is discernible.

It is doubtful whether this should be classed as small 'fort' like that on St. Catherine's Hill, Christchurch [SZ 19 NW 32 -EWK] and Ashurst Lodge [SU 30 NW 1 earthwork] or as an early Norman entrenchment without a bailey. The recent finding of what appears to have been an iron pike inclines on to the latter view. (2-3)

This earthwork, in woodland, comprises a substantial bank, averaging 9.5m wide and 1.0m high with a ditch. 4.0m wide and 0.5m deep enclosing an area c 12.0m in diameter. The earthwork is on a NE slope.

It is almost certainly a ring-motte. No trace of a bailey or of an equivalent enclosure was seen or of any internal structures. The bank and ditch are unbroken by entrances and are well preserved though a small coppice bank skirts the N.W. part of the ditch. (4)

Motte [G.T.] (5)

This work is sub-rectangular rather than "roughly circular". The S.E. and N.E. sides are fairly straight and set at a near right angle. The other two sides are curved but they are struck
on different centres and the NW. corner is well defined. The ditch on the S.E. side is cut into the lower part of a steep lynchet which strengthens the ditch but also allows the work to
be completely dominated from that quarter. The slope, small size and barely defensible position all militate against a ring-motte identification. The sub-soil here is chalk and if
the work is indeed Norman or MD. it probably represents a dry equivalent of the domestic moated enclosures of the stronger soils.

Resurveyed at 1:2500. (6)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

OS 6" 1912

( 2) General reference

Field Arch. as illustr. in Hants (1915) 242, 420, plan (Williams-Freeman)

( 3) Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society

Shore 1, 1885-9 Page(s)26

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 WCW 12-NOV-55

( 5) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1961

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F2 CFW 04-MAR-67

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