MONUMENT NO. 243724

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Medieval building and ringwork identified in a field at Long Sutton. The building was first identified by a scatter of pottery, possibly 12th century in date, tile and building stone. It has also been identified as a cropmark. The ringwork survives as an earthwork. Field investigations in 1967 found it to comprises a bank up to 10 metres in width and 1.8 metres in height and a ditch up to 8 metres in width and 1 metres in depth. The finds from the field are present in Basingstoke Museum. Scheduled.

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A field on the Lord Wandsworth estate at Long Sutton, known as `Court Gardens' is under plough and is strewn with fragments of tile and a few sherds of coarse pottery provisionally identified as 12th century. Other details such as dressed stone suggest a much later date, and it appears probable that the site was that of a dwelling from Norman times.

A crescentic earthwork in the same field also presents problems of date which may be solved by the existence of a definite line of burnt earth, including sherds of yet indeterminate pottery that underlies the earthwork at the original ground level. (1)

"There is a definite building-site near the earthwork, and the local name, `Court', suggests that it may have been a manor house. The scraps of pottery from the layer under the earthwork could not be dated but I think the earthwork is associated with the building". (2)

"In a hot dry summer the rectangular outline of a large building can be seen as parched grass in the field west of the earthwork. From the building a strip of parched grass goes to the earthwork, as if a road underlies the grass. The earthworks is known locally as `The Battery'. I have no detailed knowledge of any finds made here". (3)

Building site: SU 7574 4624; Earthwork centred at SU 7589 4621. The site of this building is visible as a scatter of large flints and fragments of tile at the highest point of a spur of high ground in the field. The area is under grass, recently mown, and no other finds were made.

The earthwork is formed by a chalk bank with an eastern ditch, both varying greatly in size and profile due to mutilation. Where best preserved the bank is 10.0m. wide and 1.8m. high with a ditch 8.0m. wide and 1.0m. deep. Both are broken at one point for about 6.0m., but this may be a mutilation. Fragments of tile were found on the earthwork but no trace of the burnt layer or of any structure was seen.

The area enclosed by the earthwork is naturally raised slightly and is separated from the site of the building by a small coombe. In Basingstoke Museum is a box of medieval potsherds and tile from this field. (4)

This work was partly excavated 1963/4 by Farnham Museum Society under the direction of I.Dormor. The foundations of a small building was uncovered in the bank of the earthwork at SU 75874621 and a fragment of corbel and a keystone were found in the ditch. An iron arrowhead was found in the vicinity of the building site at SU 75744624. Visited by Martin Biddle who thought the site might be 11th c. No definite conclusions were reached on the gap in the centre of the earthwork but the general opinion was that it was a `recent' cut through. (5)

Description of 29.6.56. still correct. Surveyed at 1:2500. (6)

Brief details of the 1963/4 excavation. "The Battery" is identified as an early medieval defensive site, the earthwork being an isolated ringwork of relatively limited occupation. (7)

Listed by Cathcart King. (8)

SOURCE TEXT

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

12, 1932-34 Page(s)310

( 2) Field Investigators Comments

F1 WCW 16-MAY-56

( 2a) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F2 WCW 21-MAY-56

( 3b) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F3 WCW 29-JUN-56

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F4 CFW 18-AUG-67

( 5c) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F5 FGA 29-AUG-67

( 7) Medieval archaeology : journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology

15, 1971 Page(s)147

( 8) 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

1 Page(s)191

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