More information : (Centred SP 381473) INTRENCHMENTS (NR). (1)
Ratley: "The motte stands on a wedge-shaped hill projecting southwards....it is about 40' across the top and has very steep sides 15 to 20' above the ditch which is formed round it. There is a small bailey on the northern side enclosed by a high bank and on the south is an enclosure 60-70' across with a somewhat irregular bank. The whole of the surface of the enclosed area is much broken, presumably by people digging for stone...The motte must have been crowned by the usual timber tower, the southern enclosure is possibly the site of later buildings, the bailey being
too small to contain them in the usual way.... Turchis the Saxon.... may well have been responsible for this castle.." (2)
A small motte with double bailey. Published survey (1/2500) revised. The site is now being excavated by Mr. Fabian and boys of the seminary at Leamington Spa. No details of the excavation are yet to hand. (3)
Excavation during 1968-73 by F. Radcliffe with the Bishop Bright Grammar School Archaeological Club, Leamington Spa, revealed no dating evidence from the rock-cut bailey ditch, which seems to have been deliberately filled in shortly after being dug. In the NW part of the bailey stone footings of a square structure lie inside the entrance. (entrance tower ?), and post-holes and beam-slots found within the bailey do not present any clear pattern. Other finds include a 12th to 13th century prick-spur and fragments of gilt-bronze strip, a barrel padlock and key from the doorway to the square building and 12th to 13th century pottery. (4-7)
Scheduled as 'Ratley Castle'. (8)
Additional bibliography. (9)
A Medieval motte and bailey castle is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. The site as a whole is centred on SP 38113 47307 and measures a total length of 175 metres long and 77 metres wide. The western side is flanked by a pair of boundary banks, which appear to have been disturbed. The northern bank of the bailey to the north-west appears to be disturbed, perhaps in the excavation mentioned above by authority. A series of parallel boundary banks extend from the south eastern bailey, suggesting an elaborate bank defined entranceway.
This site has been mapped from aerial photographs as part of the South East Warwickshire and Cotswolds HLS Target Areas National Mapping Programme (11-12).
|