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Welton le Marsh Castle Hill

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hanby

In the civil parish of Welton le Marsh.
In the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Modern Authority of Lincolnshire.
1974 county of Lincolnshire.
Medieval County of Lincolnshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TF47666980
Latitude 53.20484° Longitude 0.20962°

Welton le Marsh Castle Hill has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a medieval motte castle, known as Castle Hill, located 250m east of Hanby Hall Farm. In 1086 land at Welton le Marsh was held by Gilbert de Gant, and during the 13th century, by Jolanus de Hamby. The motte is associated with the medieval manor of Hanby.
The motte takes the form of a large mound, approximately 5m high, enclosed by a ditch. The motte is sub rectangular in plan, measuring 50m by 40m at its base, with rounded corners and steep sides to the north and east. The top of the motte measures up to 30m in length, sloping gently down to the south west; a level platform, 10m in width, the north eastern corner may indicate post medieval alteration. The ditch enclosing the motte on the east and north sides is visible as a depression measuring up to 6m in width and up to 0.5m deep. The southern ditch arm has been infilled but survives as a buried feature visible on aerial photographs. The western arm has been partly infilled and is now marked by a shallow depression. A low bank marks the outer edge of the north western corner of the ditch. (EH Scheduling Report)
Comments

The motte is over 100m from the edge of the moat of Hanby Hall which is, itself, 1km from the parish church of St Martin. However there is a suggestion there was a lost village of Hanby so the hall may not have been so isolated in the middle ages. Was the first manor house situation on the motte and then moved to a more spacious moated enclosure some time later or was the motte a supplement to a, perhaps more usual or to be expected, Saxon manor house with slight defences? If so what function did the motte serve? Was it the site of a significant residential building or a somewhat isolated but powerfully symbolic tower?
It should be noted that;
1. The along the west side of the motte runs a disused railway. Building this railway may have damaged the motte and removed features showing any relationship the motte had with the Hanby Hall moat.
2. Although this mound has been called Castle Hill for several centuries, the identification of it as a motte is recent. It was not noted by David King in Castellarium Anglicanum. It may well have been missed because Lincolnshire does not have a good county history (there is no VCH earthworks chapter). The tenurial history of the site does not exclude a castle but is not really suggestive of this being a caste. There is a great variation in earthwork castles but this one does fall far from the more typical form and it remains a possibility the mound is something other than a Norman motte and has a castle name for some other reason.
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
PastScape   County HER   Scheduling        
Maps >
Streetmap   NLS maps   Where's the path   Old-Maps      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   V. O. B.   Geology   LiDAR   Open Domesday  
Air Photos > 
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Photos >
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Sources of information, references and further reading
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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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This record last updated 15/08/2017 15:56:49

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