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HER Number | MWB16056 |
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Record Type | Monument |
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Name | Possible Civil War siege trenches, Snelsmore Heath |
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Summary
'North Siege Battery' reportedly erected by Parliamentarians in 1644 to attack Donnington Castle and surviving as an earthwork in the late 19th century
Other Statuses and Cross-References
- National Monuments Record No.: EHNMR-1328899 English Heritage NMR Excavation Index for England
SU 46 70
Monument Type(s):
Full Description
Money uses documentary evidence and field visits to locate a Civil War siege battery on Snelsmore Common or Heath: an earthwork (named North Siege Battery) is shown on his plan of the second Battle of Newbury <1> along with another entrenchment of similar size and plan to the east. They were apparently still visible in the late 19th century: "Here the trenches constructed by the Parliamentarians are still very distinctly traceable… the remains of field-works have been discovered and identified, from their agreement with contemporary descriptions, as the site of siege-batteries."
The GIS line is an approximation of these ditches from his plan - no current site visit has confirmed the 21st century survival of this feature, and nothing is visible in a 2003 air photograph <3>. The land that the reported ditches cross was largely developed as a golf course in the later 20th century. It is also possible that Money misinterpreted an older earthwork (may be a deer park boundary?) as a Civil War trench, although his plan also marks Black Ditch, further north on Snelsmore Common as "Old Entrenchment" <1>.
The NMR website has a record for an earthwork east of Hills Pightle, found during Wessex Archaeology's evaluation work in advance of the Newbury Bypass; it was then concluded that feature was a land boundary, possibly connected to activities at Donnington Castle or English Civil War Defences <4>. - Wessex Archaeology [assessment and evaluation reports] 1996/ Wessex Archaeology and the A43 Newbury Bypass Vol 2; 1994-1996 (Earthwork to the East of Hill's Pightle March 1996). However, this bank and ditch runs from north to south.
Sources and further reading
Related Monuments
MWB15775 | Newbury II Battlefield, 1644 (Landscape) |
MWB5030 | Civil War Siegework, in Dalbier's Mead (grounds of Donnington Castle House) (Monument) |
MWB1545 | Donnington Castle (Monument) |
MWB17794 | Earthwork at Wantage Road, Donnington (Monument) |
MWB22646 | Earthwork on the east side of Hill's Pightle, Donnington (Monument) |
MWB15469 | Hill's Pightle - A34 Newbury Bypass (Monument) |
MWB16725 | Possible Civil War trench in High Woods, Shaw (Monument) |
Associated Excavations and Fieldwork
EWB914 | Donnington Grove Country Club, Donnington, Berkshire - Archaeological Watching Brief report (Ref: Site Code NEDOGR06) |
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