Substantial motte & bailey castle, possibly replacing an earlier site associated with field boundaries
The site comprises a motte and bailey castle occupying the western end of the Totternhoe Ridge (a northern projection from the chalk hills of the Chiltern escarpment), together with a series of medieval quarries cut into slopes to the north and north west and s flight of cultivation terraces, or lynchets, arranged within a steep-sided coombe to the east.
The earliest written reference to the castle appears in a grant of land to Dunstable Priory dated between 1170 and 1176, where it was called "castellaria de Eglemont". The builder of the castle is thought to have been one of the Domesday lords, probably Walter de Wahull, who also built castles in the parishes of Odell, Podington and Thurleigh.
The central defensive position within the castle, the motte, is a conical earthen mound about 5m tall, set on the highest point on the spur overlooking the Ouzel valley and crowned by a concrete Ordnance Survey triangulation point (BN S4552). The mound has a diameter of 40m at the base and 14m at the summit, and is surrounded by a broad ditch of variable width on all but the south western side where the ground falls away steeply at the edge of the spur. A slight hollow in the top of the motte marks the location of an unrecorded antiquarian investigation, although the raised rim may also conceal the base of a stone tower noted by Lamborn in 1859.
The motte is enclosed between two baileys situated immediately east and west. The smaller western bailey is an oval enclosure measuring approx 63m by 80m, defined by a broad bank, except on the south west side where defence was povided by an artificial scarp accentuating the slope of the spur. The second bailey surrounds the north and east sides of the motte and is separated from the first bailey (and the motte) by an 8m wide ditch and a broad counterscarp bank. This bailey is roughly triangular in plan, measuring approx 100m north to south bby 30m east to west, enclosed to the east by a 12m wide bank, a broad external ditch and a counterscarp bank. A well shaft, known locally as "the Money Pit", lies toward the western side of the bailey. Dressed building stone was recovered from the shaft when it was excavated to a depth of 34 feet in the early 20th century.
A third bailey, or outer ward, lies immediately to the east of the motte and inner baileys. This is rectangular in plan, measuring 90m in width and extending 150m eastwards along the spur. The level interior is contained by a well-defined scarp increasing the severity of the natural slope to the south west. To the south east the boundary is formed by a substantial ditch 10m wide by 3m deep and an internal bank 12m wide and 2m high, providing a formidable rampart broken only by a single gap at the southern end.The ditch and bank remain visible at the eastern corner of the bailey, although the north eastern arm is now only marked by a slight scarp and traces of the internal bank. Material from the bank may have been used to infill the flanking ditch, now thought to lie buried beneath the adjacent bridleway.
The medieval quarries lie on the hillside below and to the north and north west of the motte. They appear as a series of infilled pits, spoil heaps and extraction scars lying both in open ground and in woodland. Several periods of extraction are represented by these workings. Totternhoe was an important source of stone in the medieval period, as the local soft limestone, known as Totternhoe Clunch, was much in demand for carving and dressing. Documentary references to the quarries are numerous.
To the east of the castle a series of cultivation terraces, or lynchets, are arranged within a steep-sided, bowl-like coombe set into the southern slope of the Totternhoe Ridge. The lynchets descend 30m from the 152m contour, forming steps which average 3m in height and terraces approx 5m broad. Across the eastern edge of the coombe, five successive steps remain fully visible. Further to the south, the lynchets have been modified by later landscaping, although three terraces remain visible. The the west, around the northern and western sides of the coombe, the terraces have become buried by subsequent soil movement. Totternhoe was the last parish in Bedfordshire to have its fields enclosed by Act of Parliament, in 1886, and several maps made before this date show extensive strip farming of which the lynchets formed a part. The precise date of the lynchets' construction is not known, although they may have developed during the occupation of the castle. The principal approach to the castle would have been along the ridge to the east, skirting the rim of the coombe and entering the castle through the western arm of the outer bailey; a geophysical survey has confirmed the presence of a track following this route. The lynchets, as well as providing suitable ground for the cultivation of crops needing good drainage and a southerly aspect (such as vines or hops) would also have enhanced the setting of the castle and impressed visitors.
In the 19th and 20th centuries there was speculation concerning a pre-medieval origin for the castle, but small excavations in the early 20th century found no evidence. The castle does occupy a position similar to that of possible hillfort sites in the Chilterns, and the presence of earlier earthworks within the medieval fortification is not discounted. Geophysical survey within the outer bailey revealed a series of buried ditches forming an irregular grid on markedly diifferent alignment to that of the bailey; these may be the remains of an earlier field system, possibly Iron Age.
The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (No. 23401).
| --- | SBD10507 - Photograph: BCC Photographic Unit. F1273/9-10 |
| --- | SBD10508 - Slide: HER Slide Archive. 6655 |
| --- | SBD10539 - Article in serial: Kelly's Directory. 1854, p 59 |
| --- | SBD10543 - Bibliographic reference: Bedfordshire Magazine. Vol 4, p 24 |
| --- | SBD10544 - Newspaper Article: Bedfordshire Times. 21/9/1850: letter |
| --- | SBD10551 - Unpublished document: Bedfordshire & Luton Archives and Records Service Documents. BLARS: Minute Book of Totternhoe Board of Conservators |
| --- | SBD10569 - Bibliographic reference: Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal. Vol 6, 1971, p 87 |
| --- | SBD10574 - Article in serial: 1908. Victoria County History, Bedfordshire. Vol 1, pp 293-294 |
| --- | SBD10576 - Article in monograph: South Midlands Archaeology. Vol 32, 2002, p 9 |
| --- | SBD10593 - Aerial Photograph: Cambridge AP index. DW 65-70 (13/7/1949) SP 979221 |
| --- | SBD10595 - Aerial Photograph: NMR Aerial Photograph. SP 9722/1-4 |
| --- | SBD10607 - Newspaper Article: Dunstable Gazette. 4/10/1968, p 5 |
| --- | SBD10614 - Article in serial: Pigot and Co Directory. 1839, p 22 |
| --- | SBD10637 - Aerial Photograph: 1968. Hunting Aerial Photos 1968. 5/7982 |
| --- | SBD10649 - Aerial Photograph: 1974. Hunting Aerial Photos 1974. 4/2756 |
| --- | SBD10652 - Aerial Photograph: 1976. Hunting Aerial Photos 1976. 16/1303 |
| --- | SBD10681 - Serial: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society. Vol 2, 1914, p 201 |
| --- | SBD10684 - Unpublished document: Buckinghamshire Museum Documents. F Gurney notebook: "Eaton Bray Book iiii, 1912" |
| --- | SBD10689 - Unpublished document: D & S Lysons. 1806. Magna Britannica. Bedfordshire. p 35 + plan |
| --- | SBD10706 - Bibliographic reference: Wadmore. 1920. Earthworks of Bedfordshire. pp 139-144 |
| --- | SBD10738 - Bibliographic reference: G J Copley. 1958. Archaeology of SE England. pp 183, 233 |
| --- | SBD10754 - Bibliographic reference: C Gore Chambers. 1917. Bedfordshire. p 95 |
| --- | SBD10755 - Article in serial: Bedfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society. Vol 24, 1871, pp xlix-l; 146-147 |
| --- | SBD10756 - Article in serial: Associated Architectural Societies Reports. Vol 1 pt 1, 1869, pp 109-128, plan facing p 124 |
| --- | SBD10758 - Article in serial: Luton Museum & Art Gallery Report. 1950-1954, p 16 |
| --- | SBD10759 - Unpublished document: South Beds District Council. Beds Wildlife & Working Group Manual of Wildlife Sites & Species Protection. p 169 |
| --- | SBD10778 - Bibliographic reference: W G Smith. 1894. Man the Primeval Savage. pp 322, 341 |
| --- | SBD10781 - Bibliographic reference: W G Smith. 1904. Dunstable: its History and Surroundings. pp 41-42, 46, 121, and map |
| --- | SBD10783 - Unpublished document: 1937. Bedfordshire Regional Planning Authority Report. p 188 |
| --- | SBD10785 - Article in serial: Archaeological Journal. Vol 39, 1882, pp 267-268 (pp 13-14 in reprint) |
| --- | SBD10788 - Bibliographic reference: Manshead Magazine/Journal. Vol 2, Jan 1959, p 20 |
| --- | SBD10790 - Verbal communication: A Simco. A Simco. Pottery found Jan 1980 |
| --- | SBD10802 - Unpublished document: Correspondence. Letter, J K St Joseph, 29/11/1971 |
| --- | SBD10803 - Scheduling record: English Heritage. SAM record form. No 23401 |
| --- | SBD10806 - Unpublished document: OS SP 92. SP 92 SE 9 |
| --- | SBD10810 - Bibliographic reference: E W Brayley, J Britten. 1801. Beauties of England and Wales. Vol 1, p 30 |
| --- | SBD10818 - Article in serial: CBA Group 9 Newsletter. No 1, 1971, p 15 |
| --- | SBD10857 - Unpublished document: Nature Conservancy Council. 1988. Biological Survey of Common Land. Beds CL16 |
| --- | SBD10881 - Plan: HER plans. Totternhoe Castle survey plan, 1:1250 |
| --- | SBD10882 - Bibliographic reference: W Nichols. 1855. Dunno's Originals. pp 39, 48-49, 63-64 |
| --- | SBD10883 - Bibliographic reference: C Lamborn. 1859. Dunstaplelogia. pp 15-16, 20 |
| --- | SBD10902 - Bibliographic reference: P Bigmore. 1979. Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Landscape. pl 1 |
| --- | SBD10910 - Bibliographic reference: W H Derbyshire. 1872. History of Dunstable. pp 16-17, 19 |
| --- | SBD10919 - Bibliographic reference: Stukeley. 1776. Itinerarium Curiosum. Centuria II, p 17 |
| --- | SBD10922 - Bibliographic reference: J Nicholls. 1780-1797. Biblioteca Topographica Britannica. p 194 |
| --- | SBD10924 - Article in serial: Our Columns. Vol 1, no 2, June 1891, p 28 |
| --- | SBD10927 - Bibliographic reference: Journal of the British Archaeological Association. ns, Vol 33, pp 215-218 |
| --- | SBD10941 - Bibliographic reference: Mawer & Stenton. 1926. Placenames of Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire. pp 139-140 |
| --- | SBD10951 - Bibliographic reference: M Dawson. 2000. Prehistoric, Roman and Post-Roman Landscapes of the Great Ouse Valley. p 24 |
| --- | SBD11133 - Bibliographic reference: A H Allcroft. 1908. Earthwork of England. p 416 n |
| --- | SBD11134 - Bibliographic reference: V H Chambers. Totternhoe Local Nature Reserve. pp 110-111 |
| --- | SBD11135 - Bibliographic reference: Beds CC Countryside Committee. The Knolls. leaflet |
| --- | SBD11136 - Bibliographic reference: The Dunstable Year Book and Directory. 1908, pp 25-35 |
| --- | SBD11137 - Index: The Official Guide to Dunstable and District with Local Directory. 1933, p 29; 1937, p 33; 1940-1941, pp 37-39 |