Thruxton Manor

Description

A bank-and-ditched homestead, the original site of Thruxton manor house.
The remaining earthworks consist of the northern side and the northern halves of the E. and W. sides, and comprise a bank 4 feet high with an outer ditch, 16 feet wide and 2-3 feet deep. A modern mud wall along the bank probably represents a much stronger flint structure. Outside the two surviving corners are projecting mounds with the ditch carried round them. The NE mound is the larger, 27 feet in diameter and 10 feet above the bottom of the ditch. Flint wall foundations on the mound may be an original corner tower or a later summerhouse.
The southern side of the enclosure is probably represented by the line of the farm buildings and of the southern churchyard wall, the gap between the farm buildings and churchyard probably representing the original approach road. The site of the manor house is indicated by a flat, terraced space near the centre.
To the E. of the earthwork, some faint traces of a bank and ditch in a grass field seem to indicated that there was a second rectangular enclosure on that side (William-Freeman).
An enclosed manorial site, as described by Williams-Freeman, but the defences are very weak and probably ornamental rather than functional (? Elizabethan). The site overlies an earlier banked and ditched sub rectangular enclosure on the E. side, which has probably original causewayed entrances in the N. and S. sides (F1 ASP 21-DEC-66). (PastScape)

Comments

The manor was held for a knight's fee. Clearly the medieval manor house was mainly a timber structure. The dating of the moat as ?Elizabethan bacause of its apparent 'ornamental' quality possibly reflects received wisdom and a C15 date, when the Lisles held the manor and were doing work in the parish church is as likely as a late C16 date when the Philpots held the manor and were also active in the parish.