More information : [SU 3740 9914] The Mount [T.I.]
Motte and Bailey [G.T.] (1)
The earthwork in Hinton Waldrist village consists of a large ditch enclosing what was probably a rhomboid area of about three acres, in which lies the present house [Hinton Manor], an Elizabethan structure with many additions. The north-east part of the earthwork has been destroyed by a road, garden, and stables.
The site was excavated by H. Gardner and M. Jope, in 1939, and the mound (20 feet high) and ditch [see plan AO:63:372:6] were found to date to the early years of the 12th century. The earthworks have features of both the moated homestead and the motte and bailey-type castle, and the excavators conclude that it was probably erected by someone not well acquainted with military defences of the 12th century.
A pit discovered in section A.B. [see plan] yielded late Saxon
pottery (11th century).
Iron Age sherds of the first century A.D. were found in the black layer of the trench on the north side of the mound and Romano-British pottery of 1st, 3rd and 4th century date were found in various parts of the excavations.
Three 4th century coins and much Roman pottery have been found in the rectory garden nearby. (2)
The earthwork from SU 3734 9919 to SU 3747 9909 has been slightly adapted for ornamental use but is generally as described and portrayed on the plan by Jope and Gardner. The mound or motte at SU 3736 9909 has no surrounding ditch and the recorded height of 20ft is only where measured on the N.E. side to the bottom of main ditch. The western angle of the earthwork and the surviving part of the N.W. side follows the crest of a steep natural slope. Upcast from the ditch has been added to this crest but it forms a significant outer bank only at the corner.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Mr H. Davenport, owner of Hinton Manor, retains the pottery found during the 1939 excavations, but this was not available for inspection.
The Rectory is now empty and the garden centred at SU37559913, is overgrown. The provenance or present location of the Roman material could not be established. (3) |