More information : (ST 85787238) Tumulus (NR). (1)
Castle Mound (NR). (2)
A high mound, probably a medieval castle mound. A water tower stands on top amidst much worked oolite. There are no signs of a bailey or moat(3) (4). Grinsell (5) lists this as probably a castle mound, 30 paces in diameter and 10 ft high. (A typographical error in the VCH gives the NGR of this feature for Bushy Barron, Biddestone, ST 87 SE 1). (3-5)
The feature is situated in a beech plantation on level ground.
It is described as a tumulus in 1828(a) and in 1837(b) was
unenclosed and part of Great Rookery field.
The mound, composed of earth and oolite rubble, is 25.0m in diameter at the base, 9.0m across the flat top and 3.4m high, with no trace of a perimeter ditch. A stone and earth ramp running up the Southern side is possibly for access to a massive late 19th or early 20th century water tank set upon cast iron pillars over a bore hole through the mound.
It could be a barrow, a small castle mount, or a medieval mill mound, when the ramp could have been part of the original structure.
1:2500 A M survey correct. (6)
Dismissed asa motte by Cathcart King whoo considers it to be the base for a gazebo, there being a mound with gazebo nearby. (7) |