Navestock Side, Bentley (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Brentwood.
In the historic county of Essex.
Modern Authority of Essex.
1974 county of Essex.
Medieval County of Essex.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ55979676
Latitude 51.64876° Longitude 0.25426°

Navestock Side, Bentley has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Earthworks on Navestock Common seen by Stukeley at least four times between 1725 and 1761 consisting of 'mounds of earth and a ditch' on the 'Chafford and Ongar' boundaries. The site of the earthworks thought to be a motte and bailey was identified by the Rev. S. C. Hore and Professor Meldola in 1894. A keyhole shaped ditch mark at TQ 55989676 visible on air photographs. The field containing the "Keyhole" is under the plough and though slightly undulating it doubtfully represents an earthwork although it almost fulfils Hore's topographical description of Stukeley's work. Possibly the site of a Medieval motte and bailey. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 411491.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 608.

Books
- Gould, Chalkley, 1903, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Doubleday, Arthur and Page, Wm (eds), VCH Essex Vol. 1 p. 295-6, 313 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Gould, I.C., 1903, 'Stukeley's "Temple" at Navestock' Essex Archaeological Society Transactions Vol. 8 p. 327-8 online copy
  Hore, Rev S.C. and Prof Meldola, 1894, Essex Naturalist Vol. 8 p. 213-4, 221-2 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- 1883, The family memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley, M.D., and the antiquarian and other correspondence of William Stukeley, Roger & Samuel Gale, etc (Surtees Society 76) Vol. 2 p. 157 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio