More information : [SU 29749565] Cromwell's Battery [TI]. Castle Mound [GT]. (1)
The summit of the knoll known variously as Cromwell's Battery, Faringdon Clump or Faringdon Folly, was excavated by E.T.Leeds in 1935/36, after the discovery of a number of skeletons found buried in great disorder, when digging foundations for a tower. The excavations revealed that the site had consisted of a single rampart and two ditches surrounding a central keep (possibly timber built but a fair quantity of stone was found), and as there is considerable documentary evidence of an adulterine castle at Faringdon having been built in 1144 and destroyed by Stephen in 1145, Leeds concluded that this was the site he had excavated. He admitted, however, that the pottery found had proved at other sites to be of 13th or 14th century date, but maintained that such dating must be in error on the evidence of the excavation (2) (3). Jope(5) and Bruce-Mitford(4), however, strongly disagree with this conclusion and the latter suggests that this may be the site of a castle erected in the 13th. century, possibly connected with the campaigns before the Battle of Evesham in 1265, although admitting there is no historical evidence for this. He suggests that the site of the adulterine castle has yet to be found.
Leeds says the name Cromwell's Battery is purely a local one, and the excavations revealed no evidence whatever of any Civil War structure here (2).
"Faringdon seems to have been a royal residence before the Conquest, as it is recorded that Edward the Elder died here in 924" (6). (2-6)
The site is marked by a modern tower eccentrically placed on a low circular earth platform 0.5 m. high. The various components revealed by Leeds excavation cannot now be identified.
Platform surveyed at 1:2500. (7)
Folly Tower . LORD BERNER'S FOLLY. Listed. For the designation record of this site please see The National Heritage List for England.
1935 by Lord Gerald Wellesley for Lord Berners of Faringdon House. Tall brick tower built to command view over Thames valley, l40'O" high. Square plan, plain Fletton brick tower, originally intended to be whitewashed, red brick upper stage with 3 round arched windows with glazing bars to each face. Intersecting tracery. Octagonal crown with stone coping and crenellations at angles with short stone pinnacles. (9-10) |