| Summary : Ringwork and bailey on Panpudding Hill, possibly built in 1102. Site used during the Civil War as a battery. The motte measures 50 metres in diameter and is partly encircled by a flat topped bank, 0.9 metres high and up to 12 metres wide. The bottom of the ditch which separates it from the bailey to the west is 3.3 metres below the top of the bank and 0.7 metres below the level of the bailey. The triangular bailey, defined by scarp slopes to the north and south, measures 50 metres in length and 30 metres in width adjacent to the motte. There are traces of a bank 0.8 metres high, and a ditch 0.6 metres deep, at the west end. Scheduled. |
More information : (SO 7154 9248) Panpudding Hill (NAT) Motte & Bailey (NR) (1)
"The Old Castle", Oldbury, or as it has been called in recent years Panpudding Hill, is a motte and bailey built on a natural rock elevation. The diameter at the top of the mound is 160 feet. It may have been built by Henry I in 1102 during the siege of Bridgnorth Castle (SO 79 SW 6). About 200 yds to the south is a flat-topped
artificial "eminence, which is more or less surrounded by the remains of a low earthen rampart enclosing an area larger than the top of the motte." (2-4)
Panpudding Hill appears to be a ring-motte with bailey. Miss Chitty with whom I discussed it, agrees with this view. The two flanking mounds do not appear to be associated. (5)
Panpudding Hill consists of an earthwork built on a promontory commanding the Severn Valley, with steep slopes to the north, east and south. The summit, which measures 50.0m in diameter, is partially encircled by a flat topped bank, 0.9m high and up to 12.0m wide. The bottom of the ditch which separates it from the bailey to the west is 3.3m below the top of the bank and 0.7m below the level of the bailey. The triangular bailey, defined by scarp slopes to the north and south, measures 50.0m in length and 30.0m in width adjacent to the motte. There are traces of a bank 0.8m high, and a ditch 0.6m deep, at the west end.
The tree-covered hillock 120.0m to the south appears to be merely a landscape feature. A small platform on the other side of a gully 100.0m to the north, measuring 15.0m long across the slope and 5.0m wide, appears to be of no archaeological significance.
Published survey (1:2500) correct. (6)
Additional reference (7)
Motte and bailey - Scheduled (8)
SO 7154 9248 (FCE). Ringwork and bailey on Panpudding Hill. The earthwork is much as described by the above authorities. In addition, ramping discernible on the SW side of the ringwork may be the remnants of an access point. There is no evidence of the `fosse and vallum' described by Watkins-Pitchford (9a). The site was re-used during the Civil War as a battery.
The above description is summarised from a detailed RCHME survey the results of which are held in the NMR archive. (9)
SO 715 924. Panpudding Hill, Oldbury. Scheduled. (10) |