South Moreton Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of South Moreton.
In the historic county of Berkshire.
Modern Authority of Oxfordshire.
1974 county of Oxfordshire.
Medieval County of Berkshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU55748803
Latitude 51.58842° Longitude -1.19661°

South Moreton Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a probable Siege Work.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

To the west of South Moreton churchyard is an earthwork consisting of an irregularly circular mound with a deep ditch excavated nearby all round it. "It lies close to the brook, and seems to have been intended for a small fortification, but as never completed." (VCH, 1906) Mound, South Moreton "The brook has been dammed back and the mound dug away towards the brook side to form the present mill dam." Betts, in making this observation offered to supply a sketch of:- "The site of the paved ford, embankments for 50 yards to the west now nearly ploughed away and the raised embankment or causeway before the rectory, which was dug down about 1880" Mound called Fossatum Castelli in 1220. (VCH, 1906, 1923, Betts) This mound, situated in a position commanding an alleged ford, has the appearance of a motte although it is of no great height and, on the west, the ditch is incomplete. The raised embankment or causeway in front of the rectory, referred to by Betts, has now disappeared. The embankment running for fifty yards to the west exists now as a slight scarp. It does not join the mound but begins and ends on hedges and most probably represents an old field bank. (field investigators comments, 1963) The remains of a possible Medieval motte centred at SU 5574 8803 with a diameter of 35m was seen as an earthwork. The motte is flanked by a ditch, part of what is thought to be the moat which is visible for almost half of the circuit on the north-eastern side (Small, 1992). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1018721, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 28196
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 237488.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2698.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Britannia America's Gateway to the British Isles since 1996
  David Nash Ford's Historic Buildings of Berkshire
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 76
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 11
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 117
  Page, Wm and Ditchfield, P.H. (eds), 1923, VCH Berkshire Vol. 3 p. 498-504 (manorial history) online transcription
  Page, Wm and Ditchfield, P.H. (eds), 1906, VCH Berkshire Vol. 1 p. 266
Periodical Articles
- Betts, W.J., 1910, 'South Moreton' Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 15 p. 73 (note–download via online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Sewell, R.C. (ed), 1846, Gesta Stephani, Regis Anglorum et Ducis Normannorum p. 115 online copy (The newer edition and translation by Potter, K.R. (ed), 1976 (2edn), Gesta Stephani (Oxford University Press) should be consulted for serious study. See also Speight, S., 2000, 'Castle Warfare in the Gesta Stephani' , Château Gaillard Vol. 19 see online transcription)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Small, Fiona, 3-12-1992, Thames Valley NMP (RCHME)

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

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