More information : (TL 14663161) Toot Hill (NR) (1)
(TL 14693157; TL 14773156; TL 14833168; TL 14863156) Moat (NR) (Four times)
(TL 14663161) Toot Hill (NAT) Motte & Baileys (NR) (2)
Toot Hill is an interesting example of a mount and bailey castle, with attached 'burgess' or fortified village. The keep mount is 340 ft in diameter at the base and 25 ft above its ditch, and has a hollow summit defended by a breastwork 6 1/2 ft high with an entrance on the NE. On the NW, the ditch is 115 ft wide with a counterscarp 10 ft high. (3-4)
The inner bailey is an enclosure of 3 2/3 acres containing the church. The defences on the N are somewhat obliterated but the ditch becomes deeper on the W where it joins that of the mount. On the S, the ditch is 42 ft wide. S of the mount and inner bailey are two other enclosures formerly defended by ditches which joined those of the mount and bailey. Beyond these again are traces of a fourth enclosure and the whole of the present village probably formed a defensive stronghold. Traces of ancient foundations are visible everywhere within the wards. It is possible that the fortified village enclosure is of pre-Conquest origin and was adapted for use as a motte and bailey castle at a later date. Nothing is known of the history of the castle, but it was probably built in the 12th century. It is unlikely that it was ever defended by masonry walls; there was probably a timber tower on the motte and timber palisades around the baileys. (5)
"The top 2 ft or so of the outer bank has produced a miscellaneous selection including Md objects. The layer then changes and the top 6 ins has produced 6 sherds, identified by Wheeler as RB, including a scrap of Samian, a 3rd-4th century sherd, and nothing yet that is definitely not Roman. It is too early to call the bank Roman. RB sherds also found in the school play-ground. The Motte can be said to be of late 11th-early 12th century. A motte that contains Roman, Norman and vaguely Md pottery has a bracket between 5th and 11th centuries. The vague pottery should lie within that bracket". (6)
TL 14763153 Roman and Md sherds excavated in 1955. (7)
Partly destroyed motte, with bailey enclosing 12th century church. Traces of an outer village enclosure. Saxon-Norman pottery found in the motte ditch. The motte is possibly unfinished. (8-9)
Toot Hill (name verified) a motte, densely overgrown with trees and scrub, situated in the centre of Pirton adjacent to the Norman church of St Mary's. Its summit has been extensively mutilated by quarrying from the E, giving the false impression of a "breastwork" around the rim. The ditch, now dry, about 2.5m deep, survives around the SE, S and W sides, but it filled in to the NE, and occupied by a path in the N. The motte is 6.7m maximum height above the ditch and the overall measruement is about 100.0m NW-SE about 80.0m transversely. The earthworks in the churchyard and in the pasture field named "The Bury" to the S and E, cannot be identified with certainty as a bailey or series of baileys, as the field is pockmarked by minor quarrying, and modern features encroach. The surviving earthworks, generally in the form of dry depressions up to 1.5m deep, appear to tie in to the village pattern, and are almost certainly Md. At no point are they as deep as the motte ditch.
Re-surveyed at 1:2500. (10) |