Holt Pond Motte, Blendworth (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Motley's Copse

In the civil parish of Rowlands Castle.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Hampshire.
1974 county of Hampshire.
Medieval County of Hampshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU72281205
Latitude 50.90341° Longitude -0.97343°

Holt Pond Motte, Blendworth has been described as a certain Siege Work.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The motte castle at Motleys Copse survives well, despite some disturbance caused by later quarrying. It can be expected to retain important archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the original construction of the monument and its later use. It forms part of a group of three or four well preserved mottes and ringworks, including Rowlands Castle to the south east, which lie in close proximity within the boundaries of the medieval forest of Bere and for which documentary evidence survives of an historical association with Robert, Earl of Arundel.
The monument includes a small motte, probably dating to the 11th or 12th century, situated on level ground within Motleys Copse near Rowlands Castle. It includes a roughly circular inner platform, 12m in diameter, enclosed by a flat topped earthen bank, 8m wide and up to 0.8m high, and an outer ditch, 9m wide and 0.5m deep. The inner platform is elevated up to 1.3m above the surrounding woodland, with no trace of internal features. A possible original entrance is indicated by a slight lowering of the bank on the northern side and a causeway, 7m wide, across the outer ditch. To the south east, the ditch has been widened away from the motte, possibly as a result of later quarrying, to form a shallow pond, up to 2m deep and 12m across. Although undated, the motte is probably broadly contemporary with a larger ringwork and bailey situated 200m to the north east, which is the subject of a separate scheduling. Both of these monuments fall within the boundaries of the medieval royal hunting forest of Bere and form part of the Hundred of Finchdean owned by Robert, Earl of Arundel. The motte may therefore represent a small siege castle erected against the ringwork and bailey by Henry I before he banished Robert of Arundel from the kingdom in 1101. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1019111, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 32547
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 242817.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 22758.

Books
- Osborne, Mike, 2011, Defending Hampshire: The Military Landscape from Prehistory to the Present (Stroud: The History Press) p. 243 (listed in Appendix)
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 38
  Williams-Freeman, J.P.,1915, An Introduction to Field Archaeology as Illustrated by Hampshire (London) p. 379
Periodical Articles
- Hughes, Michael, 1989, 'Hampshire Castles and the Landscape 1066-1216' Landscape History Vol. 2 p. 27-60
  Renn, D.F., 1959, 'Mottes: a classification' Antiquity Vol. 33 p. 106-12 (listed as siegework)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Cox, P.W., 1984, The survey and excavation of earthworks near Motley's Copse

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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