Butthouse Motte, Kings Pyon (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Kings Pyon.
In the historic county of Herefordshire.
Modern Authority of Herefordshire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Herefordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO44254895
Latitude 52.13603° Longitude -2.81594°

Butthouse Motte, Kings Pyon has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

the earthwork and buried remains of a small motte castle, situated on a south east facing slope above a tributary of Wellington Brook, which runs eastwards into the River Lugg and near the 17th century mansion known as Butthouse. The remains include an earthen motte mound, roughly circular, c.28m in diameter at the base and c.17m diameter at the top. The motte is steep-sided and has a flat top, which is c.2.4m high in the west and c.1.7m high in the east. Ploughing in a rough square around the mound has produced an angular boundary at its base, most marked on the south east where the sides are rather less steep. Although a ditch is no longer visible, material for the mound's construction will have been quarried from a surrounding ditch, which is now completely infilled. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Has previously been described and scheduled as round barrow, now scheduled as motte. Presumably the site of a small sub-manor held for a knight's fee for which the motte was a mainly symbolic marker. The manor house presumably having moved at or before Butthouse was built in the earlier C17. However, it may be this mound, which as can be seen from the change in scheduling description is not unambigious, is not a motte at all. There was a deer park in King's Pyon, although the mound does lie outside its probably area so probably not a viewing platform. A windmill is recorded in the SMR 500m NW and the mound is described in a manner not unlike other windmill mounds.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1013642, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 27481
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 107990.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3204.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Herefordshire Through Time
Books
- Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 189
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 45
  Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 10
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 207
  1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 32
  RCHME, 1934, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 3: north-west p. 88 No. 14 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- 1967, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 2 p. 2
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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