More information : Temple Hill (SP 2089 5663, OS 6" Prov.), Welcombe, is a large isolated mainly natural mound, with a flattened top and a spiral path up to it. In its present form it is obviously a landscape feature connected with the 1869 (a) Welcombe mansion; but it is an ideal motte (though the landscaping has destroyed any definite physical evidence) and its actual being such is borne out by the following:-
1. Its traditional name is 'Castle Hill'(b).
2. Welcombe Estate is included in the chief manor of Old Stratford in surveys of c. 1182 and 1252(a); also the mound is only half a mile from the Domesday Manor(c) of Clopton.
3. In 1792 labourers found on the summit, some 14" below the surface, many human bones (including a whole skeleton with a small piece of iron weapon in the skull) and an 'ancient weapon' (evidently some sort of pike, see illus.).(b)
Visited 13.11.66. (1)
Mr. Dufty suggests that the weapon is a late 16th - early 17th c. linstock (examples in Skelton's 'Engraved Illust. of Ancient Arms & Armour' Vol. 2, 1830, plates LXXXVI and CXIV, and elsewhere), but it seems equally to resemble a 15th c. 'Korseke' pole-arm (examples in 'Tables of Ancient Arms', Metropolitan Museum, New York). The finds therefore are unlikely to have any bearing on the mound as an artificial feature, except as giving a terminus ante quem. (2) |