MONUMENT NO. 362431

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Etonbury - a defensive earthwork which has been interpreted as a possible Danish harbour or homestead moat.

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(TL 1927 3797) Site of Etonbury (NR). (1)

The origin of Etonbury is unknown, but the small mounds at the ends of the ramparts are found in earthworks reputedly Danish, and the shallows cut near the river, which are unlike defensive moats, may have sheltered their shipping. (2)

As VCH and plan (attached). (3)

A probable Danish "harbour" site lies on the River Hiz, but is so mutilated by the construction of the railway and road that its layout is uncertain. (4)

A "rectangular harbour area" measuring 250 ft N-S by 150 ft E-W is apparent, with a smaller enclosure 140 ft by 50 ft leading off from its SW corner. The harbour is fed by a stream running into it from the E, but the location of the original entrance into the river is uncertain.

To the N of the harbour are two massive curved banks with external ditches enclosing a fortified area. This may originally have been D-shaped, the straight side abutting the harbour, but it is largely overlaid by the railway. A rough sketch by Lysons (circa 1800) shows an entrance linking the enclosure with the harbour area, but this is no longer visible.

It seems certain that it was later used for manorial purposes particularly on the E side (not shown on Dyers' plan).

Etonbury, an earthwork of uncertain origin generally as depicted on the plans by Wadmore and Dyer, but since mutilated in the south by a fly-over over the railway, by a sewage trench cut through the centre from N to S in 1972, and by ploughing to the E of Pix Brook. The situation is on the W end of a ridge fading into the drained flood-plain of the River Hiz. (5)

It comprises the remains of an irregularly-shaped raised area, circa 60.0m N-S by circa 40.0m E-W and about 0.8m high, bounded by a dry moat-like feature with a causeway at the NE side.

Dyer has described this as a "rectangular harbour area", but it could be the old water-course of the Pix Brook since diverted, or possibly the remains of a homestead moat. The removal of topsoil on the raised area has revealed a circular brick-lined feature, almost certainly a well of unknown date.

To the N are two curving banks with ditches to the N and NE, which are sectioned by the sewage trench, revealing the banks to be of earth, and the more southerly ditch to have been about 1.0m deep. The Pix Brook is diverted through a ravine aroudd the E and N sides of the rampart, thus forming with the river to the W, and what would have been marshy ground to the S, an excellent defensive situation. According to the Beds Archaeology Officer, some inconclusive Md potsherds have been found.

On the ridge to the E of Pix Brook are traces of a further earthwork shown on Wadmore's plan, and believed by Dyer to have been used for manorial purposes. It is rectangular, measuring approximately 300.0m E-W by 200.0m N-S. It is bounded by the brook on the S and W, and on the N and E by a rampart and ditch according to Wadmore, but which has mostly been reduced to an outward-facing scarp with only vague traces of a ditch. Only the W end of the N side within a copse has escaped the plough, surviving as a medial bank with ditches.

No further documentary evidence or local traditons regarding the site.

Published survey (25") revised.

A further part of this earthwork was destroyed in 1972-3 by the construction of a pipeline parallel to the railway. Ovservations during the work revealed a large number of 12th-13th century sherds as well as many animal bones and a few worked flints. Sections cut through the two main arms of the earthwork showed them to be of gravel with a thick timber-laced clay core. Timber remains in the upper gravel layers suggest the presence of palisading. (6)

Cathcart King interprets the site as a ringwork with one or two baileys, with a burgus and wet defences. (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 25" 1938

( 2) edited by H Arthur Doubleday and William Page 1904 The Victoria History of the county of Bedford, volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)279

( 3) by Beauchamp Wadmore 1920 The earthworks of Bedfordshire

Page(s)57-9

( 4) edited by P J Fowler 1972 Archaeology and the landscape : essays for L V Grinsell

Earthworks of the Danelaw Frontier (J Dyer) Page(s)222-36

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 NKB 16-DEC-72

( 6) Bedfordshire Archaeological Society Bedfordshire archaeological journal

D H Kennett 8, 1973 Page(s)138

(7) 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

Page(s)4

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