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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• MOAT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SETTLEMENT (Late Saxon to Medieval - 851 AD to 1539 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• POST HOLE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• COURTYARD (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds:

• ANIMAL REMAINS (Early Saxon to Medieval - 410 AD to 1539 AD)
• BUCKLE (Early Saxon to Medieval - 410 AD to 1539 AD)
• SHERD (Early Saxon to Medieval - 410 AD to 1539 AD)
• TILE (Early Saxon to Medieval - 410 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Events:

• Excavation of earthworks S of Manor Farm, Southoe, 1937-1938

Protected Status:

• SHINE (Validated): Partially levelled earthworks of a circular moat within a larger moat or ditched area, mapped from 1996 aerial photographs. Excavations in 1930s revealed evidence for Saxo-Norman buildings around a courtyard.

Full description

2. Almost circular moat 300ft diameter. Outside moat on S side is a sunk place 100ft by 40ft and 4ft 6in deep; at SW at circular mound, 32ft diameter; some 170ft away on W and about 70fton NW is large moat or fosse with considerable bank, apparently serving as an outer defence on that side; it is very wide at NW corner and has an extension of 22ft in length toward N.

5. Earthwork.

O1, site recently ploughed up; excavation by Lethbridge & Tebbutt revealed rectangular area nearly 100ft long, apparently a tiled courtyard surrounded by buildings roofed by Collyweston tiles; it is thought that this site was first occupied towards the end of the late AS period and remained in occupation during Norman times; base of a stone mortar found here is stated by Cobbett and Peck to be a stone bowl; (no mention of this site in their article)
O2, Earthwork further reduced by ploughing and is barely intelligible. Publ 1:2500 revised.
O3, Field report of 1968 still correct.
O4, Earthwork further reduced by ploughing. MSD amended.
O5, Earthworks are barely intelligible. We found tile fragments here.
Classification:
Status: ?Building: no
Occupied:
Water supply: surface
Associated mill no
Surface finds tile fragments
Aerial photos CUCAPEnclosure plan double
Enclosure type partial
Enclosure banks internal (outer moat) Wet moat/dry moat/revetment Size: width: 9m depth: 2mAppendages: channels
Ridge and furrow: none

9. Ditches forming moat shaped feature plus associated ditches mapped from Bedfordshire 1996 aerial photography.

10. Investigations following the ploughing of the moated site uncovered a Late Saxon site. There appeared to be a pit dwelling with post holes on both sides of one end. Late Saxon pottery was recovered.

14-19. A subcircular ditched enclosure associated with the early medieval period is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data and was mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. Located in a field about 550 metres SW of Manor Farm, Southoe, and centred at TL 17836 63868, the ditch varies between 3 metres (on its eastern side visible as a cropmark) and 19 metres wide (on its western side as an extant earthwork ditch). The ditch encloses an area about 99.5 metres N-S and 89 metres E-W. The southern side is linear for about 50 metres aligned E-W and has the appearance of having been squared off. Some 9 metres to the south of this is a subrectangular ditch about 34 metres E-W and 16 metres N-S. From the SE corner of the enclosure ditch, a linear ditch extends 64 metres west, turns north for 109 metres and then WNW for 124 metres, to form a possible rectangular enclosure. There is a suggestion that the enclosure may have a 2 metre wide curvilinear internal earthwork bank in an arc about 75 metres long. There is also a possible rectilinear ditch or pit about 15 x 7.5 metres, visible as a cropmark in aerial photographs taken in 2011 in the southeast quarter of the enclosure, the feature also barely visible as a very shallow earthwork on remote sensing data. Some 51 metres to the west of the subcircular enclosure, a 9 metres wide linear ditch about 311 metres long (with a dog-leg turn in it) extends S-NNE about 262 metres. Historic aerial photographs taken in 1945 suggest that the subcircular enclosure ditch was an extant though shallow earthwork at that time, but in subsequent decades since been plough-levelled.

21. The cropmark trace of a large curvilinear enclosure presumed to be that described by authorities 2-3 above could be seen centred at TL 1790 6386. The western side coincides with an elongaged clump of trees which may indicated the presence of a ditch surviving as an earthwork at this point. The southern side coincides with a slight earthwork marked on the first edition OS map. The enclosure ditch visible as a cropmark has an approximate diameter of 110m, but appears quite narrow for a moat. This site was visible recorded on aerial photographs taken by English Heritage in July 2006 as part of the English Heritage Reconnaissance Recording programme.

<1> 1927, OS 6 inch map (Map). SCB9000.

<2> Page, W. and Proby, G. (eds), 1926, The Victoria County History of Huntingdonshire. Volume 1, 304, 305 (ill, Inskipp Ladds) (Bibliographic reference). SCB14952.

<3> RCHM, 1926, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Huntingdonshire, 241 (Bibliographic reference). SCB12619.

<4> Lethbridge, T. C. and Tebbutt, C. F., 1938, Southoe Manor. PCAS 38: 158-63 (Article in serial). SCB10595.

<5> 1971, OS 1:2500 map (Map). SCB8813.

<6> Lethbridge, T.C., 1950, Byzantine Influence in Late Saxon England. PCAS 43: 2-6, p. 3 (Article in serial). SCB10313.

<7> Untitled Source (Aerial Photograph). SCB2870.

<8> Renn, D.F., 1959, Mottes: A Classification. Antiquity 33: 106-12 (Article in serial). SCB752.

<9> Palmer, R., 2009, Bedfordshire 1996 aerial photograph transcription, AF/96C/565/Run18/1670 (Cartographic materials). SCB21380.

<10> Taylor, A., 1978, Anglo-Saxon Cambridgeshire, p. 10 (Bibliographic reference). SCB1272.

<11> Aldsworth, F.G., 1968, Field Investigator Comments, 21/5/68 (Verbal communication). SCB60629.

<12> Colquhoun, F.D, 1978, Field Investigators Comments, 17/3/71 (Verbal communication). SCB60597.

<13> Dickson, R., Field Investigator Comments, 21/10/81 (Verbal communication). SCB60613.

<14> Bedford Borough NMP, 2018, RAF/106G/UK/635 RP 3461 10-AUG-1945 (Geospatial data). SCB63038.

<15> Bedford Borough NMP, 2018, RAF/106G/UK/635 RS 4335 10-AUG-1945 (Geospatial data). SCB66524.

<16> Bedford Borough NMP, 2018, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery TL 1763 12-JUL-2013 (Geospatial data). SCB66520.

<17> Bedford Borough NMP, 2016, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM 01-JAN-2006 Accessed 31-JUL-2017 (Geospatial data). SCB57807.

<18> Bedford Borough NMP, 2018, NMR 27080/010 29-JUN-2011 (Geospatial data). SCB66525.

<19> Bedford Borough NMP, 2018, LIDAR TL 1763 Environment Agency 1m DTM 01-JAN-1998–23-AUG-2016 (Geospatial data). SCB66526.

<20> 1937, PCAS 37 (Serial). SCB18632.

<21> English Heritage, NMR TL 1763/8 NMR 24364/14 17-JUL-2006 (Aerial Photograph). SCB66527.

Sources and further reading

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