More information : (TL 74706284) Castle Holes (TI) Motte and Bailey (GT). "Coins and spur found AD 1861 (TI)" (a).
Some coins and a spur were found in 1861 at Castle Holes. (1)
Denham Castle, 'Castle Holes', comprises a mount 10 feet high with a concave summit, lying within the north east side of the circuit of an oval bailey, the ditch at that point being common to both keep and court.
The whole work is very much worn and the ditch is now but 4ft 6ins deep. There is a very wide and low bank around the western half of the bailey rising 4ft from the interior and 30ft broad. The entrance is on the south. To the east of it, the bank has been destroyed, and the site of it, together with the ditch, now provides apond 100ft broad. A slightly raised bank running through the centre of the bailey has probably been an agricultural division in a post Medieval age. (2)
Some levelling operations in recent years has reduced the height of the motte and left the bailey practically featureless. It has since been neglected and in consequence is in an extremely overgrown condition.
The ditch which surrounds the site is as described by VCH but the Ministry of Agriculture, as estate owners, are trying to get a Ministry of Works preservation order rescinded with the intention of filling in the whole of the ditch with the exception of the portion at the south east corner. The OS 25" 1904 has been amended. (3)
Denham Castle (name confirmed) a motte and bailey, situated on high ground on clay with flints. Both features are enclosed by an oval ditch which measures overall 132.0m southwest-northeast by 122.0m transversely. The ditch averages 15.0m wide by 2.0m deep, except for the waterfilled south east side which is now 34.0m wide. This has possibly been enlarged for ornamental purposes and two small islands added.
The original entrance to the bailey was across the south ditch at TL74716279 but this has been much enlarged for later access. (The former approach road is visible as a soil mark on OS air photograph (c).) Two spurs of clay to the west of the motte may have formed partof a later causeway or bridge. Tipping has partially filled the ditch for some 15.0m on the west side. The interior of the bailey has been levelled and landscaped, but vague traces of the inner bank survives on the south west side up to 0.4m high by 14.0m wide but elsewhere it has been mutilated beyond recognition. Faint traces of the ditch which separated the motte from the bailey can be traced in the grass on the south side of the motte. This was probably destroyed when the mound was landscaped. A few large flints are visible on the surface of the motte and in the ditch banks, but no indication of walling survives on the surface.
Published 25" survey revised. (4) |