Castle Floor, Markwell Lane (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
East Waters Wood

In the civil parish of Landrake with St Erney.
In the historic county of Cornwall.
Modern Authority of Cornwall.
1974 county of Cornwall.
Medieval County of Cornwall.

OS Map Grid Reference: SX37105738
Latitude 50.39276° Longitude -4.29399°

Castle Floor, Markwell Lane has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Berridge suggested that the field-name 'Castle Floor' possibly refers to a round. He recorded no extant remains (pers corr). Site visit in Dec 1994 by N Thomas and V Gray: Castle Floor is a flat topped hill sloping gently on west and north, steeply on east to the river. On the east side of Castle Floor in the woodlands is a roughly rounded hillock, partly natural, but also apparently partly built up from shaley soil. This wooded hillock is bounded by a field wall on its west side. It occupies a position high above the river with commanding views. Possible motte and bailey site. (Cornwall & Scilly HER)

Comments

Although seemingly isolated from settlement the closeness to the Lynher estuary should be noted. The lack of any latter dwelling here does suggest this was never a residential site. It should also be noted the railway did run even more close to this site before 1908 and the site may well be damaged and the (?overgrown) mound may be spoil or actual railway embankment, although John Smith, Senior Archaeologist of Cornwall Council assures Gatehouse the earthwork is not associated with the railway. However, the field name still requires consideration.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6434.

Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Smth J.R., 24-3-2010, pers. corr.

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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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