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Monument Types

• CIRCULAR ENCLOSURE (Unknown date)
• CASTLE? (Medieval - 1067 AD to 1539 AD)

Summary

The site, although described as a mound, is a circular enclosure with a deep ditch and a counterscarp bank. Hoskins describes it as an adulterine castle, which is possible. It could also be a burial mound or the site of a windmill.

Additional Information

Scheduled Monument description:
The monument at Ingarsby known as 'Monk's Grave' is a moated site and is situated on high ground 1km north of the village of Houghton-on-the-Hill. The moated site is sub-circular in shape and approximately 50m in diameter with a surrounding ditch 8-12m wide and up to 2m deep. The moat island forms a raised platform about 1m above ground level. The moat is currently dry and contains a spring on the eastern side. On the north-eastern side there is an outer bank 4m wide and 1.5m high which terminates 5m from a field boundary, and indicates the position of an entrance.

The site although described as a mound is a circular enclosure with a deep ditch and a counterscarp bank (now partly ploughed away). The centre is 1/2 platform 1/2 mound.

Site visited 03/12/86. Interior of site badly damaged by badger sett. Can be little structural evidence surviving. (PL 03/12/86)

In 1852 the LLPS were recommended to open the 'large round tumulus' near Ingarsby but declined because it seemed to have already been opened.

Surveyed by RFH 1988.

<1> 1956, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Volume 32, Vol 32 (1956), p46-7 (Journal). SLE5968.

Hoskins described it as an adulterine castle, and RTSH thinks this is possible. Other possibilities exist such as burial mound and/or windmill stead.

<3> Liddle, P., 1983, A Guide to 20 Archaeological Sites in Leicestershire (Bibliographic reference). SLE2990.

See <1>

<3> Elkin, Kathleen (ed), 2015, Medieval Leicestershire: Recent Research on the Medieval Archaeology of Leicestershire, p138, "Medieval fortified sites of Leics & Rutland", Richard Knox (Bibliographic reference). SLE5149.

"'Monk's Grave' is a relatively small mound with a ring ditch, but with no bailey ditch. It is very similar in form to the Kibworth Harcourt earthwork. Other ideas such as a hermitage or barrow have been put forward."

<4> Hartley, RF, 2018, The medieval earthworks of south and south-east Leicestershire, p158 (Bibliographic reference). SLE5736.

"Some 500m south-west of Ingarsby village is an isolated mound called the 'Monk's Grave', with a central platform some 25m in diameter, surrounded by a ditch 10m wide. This has been variously interpreted as a small fortified site, and as a rabbit warren, but its purpose is not yet ascertained. It may also be a remote viewing mound for the landscape of the gardens (op cit)."

Sources

Associated Finds

None recorded

Designations

• Scheduled Monument 1010839: MOATED SITE AT INGARSBY

Images

Undated enclosure, Monk's Grave © LCC	Ingarsby, Monk's Grave © LCC
Mound or enclosure earthworks © Leicestershire County Council	Undated enclosure, Monk's Grave © Leicestershire County Council
RFH plan of undated mound at Ingarsby, "Monk's Grave" © Leicestershire County Council

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