Groton Pitches Mount

Description

Pytches Mount; a low Norman motte, nearly 200ft in diameter and 20ft high. It is much mutilated by an excavation through the top and was formerly surrounded by a ditch. This has mostly been filled in or destroyed by gravel digging and is mainly in evidence on the north where the counterscarp is 4ft 9ins (VCH, Renn). A fine example of a ring-motte in a good state of preservation. It is banked on much of the rim and the "excavation" mentioned by Renn is a central banked depression entered from the northeast by a sunken way. No outer ditch remains (Field Investigators Comments–F1 BHS 15-JAN-70). (PastScape)

Manor of Groton belonged to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds by 1086. In the late C12 Jocelin of Brakelond recorded that in the time of King Stephen the vills of Groton and Semer were granted for life to Adam de Cockfield because he could defend the vills against the holders of neighbouring castles (W de Milden and W de Ambli), as he had his own castle at Lindsey (VCH). The Cockfields continued to hold Groton for lives down to circa 1198. In 1200 Groton was held under the Abbot of Bury by Gilbert Peccatum (Peche or Pecche). D F Renn suggested that Pytches Mount may have been William of Ambli's castle, but this was almost certainly at Offton. The name Pitches or Pytches Mount may be derived from the Pecche family. Two fields called 'Pitches Field' are recorded in 1798 and a 'Pitcher's Meadow' in 1838; these are 600m and 1km from Pitches Mount. However, Groton House was owned or occupied by John Pytches Esq from circa 1804/5. He died in 1829 and Groton House was purchased by the Rev G A Dawson in 1830. His occupation probably coincides with the bringing of the Mount into Groton Park. The 'ramp' on the north side of the mound and possibly the earthworks on the summit may be early C19 adaptations of the mound as a garden feature and he may have bestowed his name on the resulting creation. (Suffolk HER)