Long Crendon Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Long Crendon.
In the historic county of Buckinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Buckinghamshire.
1974 county of Buckinghamshire.
Medieval County of Buckinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP699089
Latitude 51.77556° Longitude -0.98842°

Long Crendon Motte has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Parker's article writes there is a high mound but this was not obvious enough to be mapped by the Ordnance Survey, The VCH earthwork survey or the RCHME survey. However the location is by the church and a house called the Courthouse and is clearly a manorial centre (another manorial centre possibly existed at The Square) with an adjacent deer park, mentioned in Domesday, and Notley Abbey beyond that. Despite the paucity of remains it is difficult to believe this important manor did not have a high status dwelling in the C11 and C12 and that this dwelling must have some fortification. The tenurial history suggests the site was of much less importance after the C12, despite the value a deer park must have given the site. It seems highly likely there was an earthwork castle here of some form but not used after the C12 and fairly rapidly destroyed.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 340767.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 0020903000
0201400000.

Books
- Donald, J., 1971, Long Crendon, A short history Part 1 p. 3
  Page, Wm (ed), 1927, VCH Buckinghamshire Vol. 4 p. 38 online transcription
  Lipscomb, G., 1847, History and Antiquities of Buckinghamshire Vol. 1
Periodical Articles
- Parker, J., 1892-7, 'The Giffards' Records of Buckinghamshire Vol. 7 p. 504
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2009, Long Crendon Historic Town Assessment Report online copy

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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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