More information : (Centred at SU 63900730) Camp (OE). (1)
One of the least common forms of Norman earthwork - a square bailey with a corner mount of somewhat higher elevation than is usual in this county, and possessing the unusual feature that the bailey bank and ditch completely surround the mount and that its ditch does not merge with that of the bailey; it stands separated from the bailey bank by a space of 10 - 20 feet.
The mount, in the NE corner of the bailey, is about 20 yards in diameter, and rises about 3 feet above the remains of the level area on the SE side. It is completely surrounded by its ditch, which measures 30 - 40 feet from lip to lip and is 13 feet below the level of the mound where this is best preserved.
The bailey remains perfect only on the N of the mound. Here the bank rises 5 feet above the area and 10 feet above the bottom of the ditch. A band of chalky ploughland about 40 feet broad but now quite level (not shown on plan) indicates the line of the western side. There is an entrance, apparently original, in the N side of the bailey, opposite the centre of the mound, and a low bank runs from the NW side of the mount ditch and joins the N bank of the bailey.
The Portsmouth - Southwick road cuts diagonally across the site from SE - NW, and large chalk-pits and shallow irregular diggings have further destroyed the remains, only the NW half of the bailey, together with the mount, now remaining. There are now no traces of foundations, or of a well. (2)
The castle mound, intact but heavily overgrown, is encircled by a ditch. The bailey bank (and, along the overgrown northern side,
its outer bank) is well preserved to the east of the road, except where cut through by chalk pits. The interior of the bailey on this side has been completely quarried away by shallow chalk pits. The area to the west of the road is under plough and no trace of the bailey bank survives. (3)
Ploughing has reduced the motte to a slight spread mound of unsurveyable proportions, and has erased all other features to the S of it. Some 40.0 metres of the bailey bank, with traces of the ditch, remain either side of the N entrance, covered with undergrowth. Published NSL 1/2500 revised. (4)
(SU 63900730) Motte & Bailey (NR). (5)
No change. Revised 1:2500 Survey correct. (6) |