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Summary

A motte and bailey castle 700m W of Mayfield Heath Farm

Monument Type(s):

• MOTTE AND BAILEY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• DITCH (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• MOUND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument () 1009595: 'The Moat': a motte and bailey castle 700m west of Mayfield Heath Farm

Full description

A motte & bailey castle on a low plateau c. 3km N of the River Ouse at Huntingdon. The motte is an oval mound 3m high, 24m long by 12m wide, lying to the N of the bailey. It is surrounded by a ditch whose outer edge is rectangular in plan, and which is up to 1.5m deep. The ditch is 10m wide on three arms, but the NW arm is only 5m wide. There is an outer bank, 4m wide by 0.5m high, along the SW, SE and NE arms. Although there are no surface traces of a bank on NW arm there is potential for the survival of below-ground evidence. A small irregularly shaped bailey 40m long by 15m wide lies on the SE side of the motte. The bailey ramparts on the E side are thought to have been destroyed by agricultural activity, but the interior is intact, and defences are still visible on the W and S sides. These comprise a 0.5m high bank with a waterlogged outer ditch 7m wide by 1.5m deep. An outlet channel, 7m wide and 1.5m deep, emerges from the SW of the bailey ditch. The outer bank on the SW arm of the motte ditch extends along the W arm of the bailey and the W edge of the outlet channel. The site is now called 'The Moat' but on older maps is called 'The Mount', helping to confirm its identification as a castle. It is situated at the N end of the ancient Royal Forest of Sapley. The site is essentially well-preserved. The interior of the bailey & top of the motte will contain below-ground evidence of building remains, whilst the ditches and buried land surface beneath the motte contain silt deposits from which environmental evidence may be recovered.

2. Earthwork remains visible on LiDAR data from 2016.

4. "The Moat" is a small motte and bailey, each enclosed by its own moat, situated at the northern end of the ancient Royal Forest of Sapley (TL 27 SW 72), and is described on old maps as "The Mount". The bailey has a strong outer bank on its north east, south east and south west sides, which runs between it and the motte. Outside this bank is an outer moat on the south east and south west, which connects with the moat round the motte and also with the western corner of the moat of the bailey. The moats are fairly wide and deep, but dry for most of the year.

5. A homestead moat, now dry, with an irregular pond containing a little water to the south. No traces of a building could be seen on the island and the whole site has a fairly dense covering of undergrowth.
See 1:2500 survey.

<1> Taylor, A., Castles of Cambridgeshire (Bibliographic reference). SCB19242.

<2> Environment Agency, 2016, LIDAR composite digital terrain model (DTM) 1m - Raster image, 01/10/2018 (Geospatial data). SCB54950.

<3> 1959, OS 6 inch map (Map). SCB8920.

<4> Page, W. and Proby, G. (eds), 1926, The Victoria County History of Huntingdonshire. Volume 1 (Bibliographic reference). SCB14952.

<5> Seaman, B.H., Field Investigator Comments, 22/6/71 (Verbal communication). SCB61886.

Sources and further reading

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