Monument Type(s):

• MOTTE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

Scheduled Monument: A good example of a Norman motte castle, one of a series of such fortifications strategically positioned along the main pass between Shrewsbury and Montgomery, surviving as an earthwork 20 metres in diameter and 1 metre high. There is no evidence for a bailey. A shallow ditch some 4 metres in width and up to 0.4 metres deep surrounds the motte apart from on the north west side.

Related records: None recorded

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1857 - 1968 field observation by English Heritage
• ESA1858 - 1971 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA1859 - 1983 field observation by English Heritage

Description

(SJ 28360067) Motte (NR) OS 1:10000 1976.

The motte at Wotherton measures 27 feet north-south by 30 feet east-west and possibly was not more than 4 feet high. It stands in a low and overlooked position in the bend of a small stream, the coombe of which makes a formidable obstacle on that side. The farm standing close to the motte obscures any bailey there may have been, apart from a shallow and ill-marked ditch on the south-east side with a scarp of four feet and a counter-scarp of two feet. The farmer claims to have struck blocks of stone when erecting a pole about 1965. Plan and sections reproduced. <1a>

A circular mound, 20m in diameter and averaging 1m high, with a ditch up to 0.4m deep on all but the NW side. There is no evidence of a bailey. OS FI 1971. Published survey 1:2500 revised.<1><1b>

A small, grass-covered, earthen motte; 20.0m in diameter, and averaging 1.0m in height. A shallow ditch on all but the north-west side, directly above the stream, is some 4.0m in width, and up to 0.4m in depth. It is being filled in with farm rubbish on the south-west. There are no certain traces of a counterscarp bank, (2) and no signs of a bailey. Published 1:2500 survey 1972, correct. <1c>

Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, High score as one of 43 Motte castles <4>

Scheduling revised in 1995. Scheduling description: ->

-> The monument includes the remains of a small motte castle situated towards the foot of a north west facing slope in the bend of a small stream to the north of the village of Wotherton. It includes an earthen mound or motte, circular in plan with a base diameter of 21m rising to a flat summit 10m in diameter and standing 1.2m above the surrounding ground surface. A ditch up to 4m wide and 0.4m deep is visible around all sides but the north west, where the stream valley drops steeply away from the motte. <5>

Photographed during aerial survey in 2008. <6><7>

Listed by Cathcart King <8>

The motte and its surrounding ditch are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs ( NMR SJ 2800/1 06-JUL-1984) and have been mapped by RCHME's Marches Uplands Mapping Project. <9>

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.