More information : [SK 6448 3883] Mound, probably motte and bailey (Bailey Lane adjacent.) (1)
Mound 150 yards SW of the church at Radcliffe, is c. 10 yards in diameter and 4 feet high with no sign of an enclosing ditch. Of uncertain use. (2)
Excavated by author in the summer of 1951. The mound is 90 feet in diameter and 6-8 feet high, surmounted by a tall elm, c.180-200 years old. The nearby farm is of the same age. A 'rectangular eminence', 15 yards east of the mound, is 241 feet long, 77 feet wide and c. 3 feet high. Both mound and earthwork have a deep ditch on the north side, 36 feet wide and 8 feet deep. At the east end of the ditch is a pond constructed c.100 years ago. There are several smaller 'tumps' to the west of the mound and the field on the south is high rig-and-furrow.
Near the middle of the mound, c.1200 A.D. dark green pottery was found at 1' 10" and a post-hole 8" diameter, filled with sandstone and charcoal. Md. tile fragments a 13th C. green glazed sherd and a boar's tusk were also found at the centre. Fragments of early Tudor brick were noticed.
The rectangular mound yielded little except for 19th C. potsherds from the surface probably derived from the soil of the pond being spread on it.
The author identifies the earthworks as a motte and bailey, 'well drained against flood', and suggests the 'tumps' to be the remains of Md. 'huts'. A well, c. 8 feet deep, still exists. A section cut across the adjoining rig and furrow revealed charcoal with 18/19th C. potsherds. The furrows contained an inverted U drain-pipe popular after 1783. (3)
The site has been levelled, and is now occupied by RCAF married quarters. Mr. S.A. Bell of Lamcote Fm. stated that his field (centred SK 646 388) adjoining the site was ploughed last year 'for the first time in living memory'. No finds were made. (4) |