CASTLE HILL

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DESCRIPTION

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Medieval motte and bailey castle surviving as an earthwork; supposed outer bailey traced as a cropmark. The motte is 8 to 10 metres tall from the base of the ditch and has a flat top approximately 12 metres across. The motte ditch is semi-circular in shape and is 6 to 8 metres wide. There are no signs of slight banks at the two ends before the ground slopes away to the west. The outer bank of the bailey survives as a very low earthwork some 50 metres to the east of the motte. The castle was probably built in Stephen's reign (1135-54). Scheduled.

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MORE INFORMATION & SOURCES

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(SK 84970046) Castle Hill (TI) (1)

Beaumont Chase. Castle Hill is an artificial mount with a very round escarpment 38ft in height. The nearby flat summit has been 54ft in diameter but subsidence on the west has altered its original character. There is a ditch with counterscarp on the northern and eastern sides. Steep natural slopes provide the defence on the south and west. To the north-east adjacent to the mount are traces of two baileys. The Castle was probably built during Stephen's reign (1135-1154) (3). Scheduled. (2-4)

Mound and inner bailey surveyed at 1:2500. Outer bailey not traced. (5)

Outer bailey bank (concentric with the inner) identifiable. (6)

Both baileys fall on arable land and whilst the inner is still quite marked, the outer enclosure, whose course can be identified with the aid of AP's, has been reduced to a depression of considerable width but very little depth.
See survey. (7)

SK 8500 0047. Castle Hill motte and bailey, Beaumont Chase.
The motte is 8-10m tall from the base of the ditch and has a flat top approximately 12m across. The motte ditch is semi-circular in shape and is 6-8m wide. There are no signs of slight banks at the two ends before the ground slopes away to the west. The outer bank of the bailey survives as a very low earthwork some 50m to the east of the motte.
Identified as typical of post-Conquest motte and baileys. The hill on which it was built is mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 1046 and referred to as Martin's Hoe.
Scheduled (RSM) No. 17011. (8)

Listed by Cathcart King. (9)

Analysis of the castle in relation to its Mediaeval landscpe, the church, manor etc. (10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1902-50

( 2) edited by William Page 1908 The Victoria history of the county of Rutland: volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England 1908 Page(s)112

( 3) edited by the late William Page 1935 The Victoria history of the county of Rutland: volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England 1935 Page(s)61

( 4) Scheduled Monument Notification

AM List England & Wales 1955 56 (MOW)

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

W C Woodhouse/03-SEP-1959/Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator

( 6) Aerial photograph

APs (OS 67/143 June 1967 606/607)

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

B H Seaman/21-OCT-1971/Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator

( 8) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage SAM Amendment Leicestershire 10-FEB-1992

( 9) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

2 Page(s)417

(10) Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society transactions

73, 1999 Page(s)19-33

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