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MONUMENT NO. 362741

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DESCRIPTION

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The earthwork and cropmark remains of a medieval ringwork and bailey castle together with a complex of other buried ditches and enclosures on a low gravel island to the west of Biggleswade. The site was initially identified from the air in 1954. Some rescue excavation was undertaken in 1962 in advance of the A1 Biggleswade by-pass. The site appears to date from the century or so after the Norman Conquest. Finds included pottery and evidence for wattle & daub and timber structures. Ordnance Survey field investigation in 1968 suggested that only the central mound and faint traces of the encircling ditch were still visible on the ground. The remainder had been levelled by the plough. The site is scheduled.

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MORE INFORMATION & SOURCES

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A previously unknown ringwork and bailey on the W. bank of the R. Ivel was observed from the air at TL 184445 as a cropmark by St. Joseph in 1954. (See Key to A/P on illustn.card) (2).

The remains suggest a ringwork and bailey rather than a motte, and the position is good for a castle site. The site was endangered by the construction of the A.1. Biggleswade by-pass, and a brief rescue excavation was undertaken by the M.O.W. in 1962. This consisted of one trench cut obliquely across the line of the ringwork ditches and on the edge of the ringwork platform. a few sherds of cooking-pots were found of similar fabric to Early Medieval wares recently defined by Hurst (3) and probably E. 12th c. The trial excavation certainly dates from the century following the Norman Conquest, and that it contained wattle and daub-clad timber structures associated with ditch defences. Scheduled. (1-3)

Only the central mound with faint traces of its encircling ditch
survive - all the other features are ploughed out.
Surveyed at 1/2500. (4)

A rapid examination of air photography (5a) shows the ringwork and bailey, including a possible sub-dividing ditch in the bailey, and the unusual nature of the ditch cropmarks, which appear divided into small blocks.(5)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Bedfordshire Archaeological Society Bedfordshire archaeological journal

3, 1966 Page(s)15018

( 2) Antiquity Publications Limited Antiquity

40, 1966 Page(s)143

( 3) Medieval archaeology : journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology

5, 1961 Page(s)259

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

First OS Archaeology Field Investigator 28/02/1968

( 5) RCHME/EH Aerial Photographers Comment

Andrew Miller 08/03/1995 RCHME Aerial Photography Primary Recording Project

( 5a) Aerial photograph

NMR, TL 1844/5/291-4, TL 1844/7-9, TL 1844/13/2170-2, TL 1844/14-9, 21-51

(6) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage Schedule Entry 13/11/1995

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