The site includes a motte and bailey castle on a ridge of the Chilterns. The motte is a steep-sided mound 40m in diameter surrounded by a ditch which varies in width from 8m to 12m; the ditch is approx 2.5m deep and the top of the mound is approx 5m above the base of the ditch. The mound forms a truncated cone shape, with a flattened area at the top 20m in diameter. The remains of buildings on the motte are indicated by a depression 0.3m deep at the east side of this flattened area. The motte was surrounded by an outer bailey, the eastern rampart of which is still visible as a bank and outer ditch running north-south and curving slightly to the south west.The outer ditch seems to have become infiled with material from the bank.The bank is now 2m wide by approx 0.5m high and the ditch is 6m wide by 0.5m deep. The extent of the bailey to the north, south and west is not known but is believed to correspond with the modern field boundary. The earthworks have suffered a good deal of erosion.
The castle has been identified as the stronghold of Sir Paulinus Pegure in the 13th century; the name of Conger Hill is first recorded in 1597 and believed to be a corruption of an earlier British name. The mound was used as a rabbit warren in the 16th century. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (No 20439). Medieval pottery was found on the eroded sides of the mound in 1987 and 1988, and donated to Luton Museum.
| --- | SBD10507 - Photograph: BCC Photographic Unit. Aerial Photograph |
| --- | SBD10508 - Slide: HER Slide Archive. 535 |
| --- | SBD10533 - Bibliographic reference: Nikolaus Pevsner. 1968. Buildings of England, Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough. p 157 |
| --- | SBD10543 - Bibliographic reference: Bedfordshire Magazine. Vol 8, 1961-1963, pp 269, 348 |
| --- | SBD10551 - Unpublished document: Bedfordshire & Luton Archives and Records Service Documents. BLARS: X325/53, Gurney notebook, 1913-1914 |
| --- | SBD10574 - Article in serial: 1908. Victoria County History, Bedfordshire. Vol 1, p 286-287 |
| --- | SBD10593 - Aerial Photograph: Cambridge AP index. HH 46-48, SH14-16 |
| --- | SBD10595 - Aerial Photograph: NMR Aerial Photograph. TL 0129/1/403 |
| --- | SBD10689 - Unpublished document: D & S Lysons. 1806. Magna Britannica. Bedfordshire. p 143 |
| --- | SBD10706 - Bibliographic reference: Wadmore. 1920. Earthworks of Bedfordshire. pp 135-137 |
| --- | SBD10783 - Unpublished document: 1937. Bedfordshire Regional Planning Authority Report. p 188 |
| --- | SBD10788 - Bibliographic reference: Manshead Magazine/Journal. Vol 32, April 1992, p 10 |
| --- | SBD10803 - Scheduling record: English Heritage. SAM record form. Monument no 20439 |
| --- | SBD10809 - Bibliographic reference: Bedfordshire Archaeology. Vol 19, 1991, p 80 |
| --- | SBD10827 - Bibliographic reference: J H Blundell. 1925. Toddington, its Annals and People. pp 5-6 |
| --- | SBD10876 - Bibliographic reference: Fisher. 1812. Collections of the History, Geneaology and Topography of Bedfordshire. Illus 100 |
| --- | SBD10878 - Bibliographic reference: M Beresford. 1957. History on the Ground. P 181-182 |
| --- | SBD10879 - Unpublished document: OS: TL 02. TL 02 SW 1 |