Bruces Castle Farm, Conington (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Bruck; Cunnington

In the civil parish of Conington.
In the historic county of Huntingdonshire.
Modern Authority of Cambridgeshire.
1974 county of Cambridgeshire.
Medieval County of Huntingdonshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL18408458
Latitude 52.44624° Longitude -0.25934°

Bruces Castle Farm, Conington has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Medieval moated site which takes its name from Bernard de Brus who built a manor here shortly after 1242. The island is roughly square and surrounded by a substantial moat. A document of 1279 refers to a hall with a wing either side, the west wing containing a chapel. A gatehouse with a drawbridge, flanked by stables stood north of the house. The south east corner of the moated island was occupied by a bakehouse and fishpond, the latter surviving as an earthwork. Surrounding the house, within the moat, were a number of gardens including a herbary and a vineyard/orchard. The house was ruinous by the late 16th century but was described by the Elizabeathan antiquarian William Camden as an 'ancient castle'. (PastScape)

A moated site, the island is roughly square measuring approximately 80m by 100m and is defined by a substantial moat 6m wide by a minimum of 3m deep. The site takes it's name from Bernard de Brus who built the manor house here around 1242. Building debris found on disturbed ground showed signs of burning, suggesting that the site's abandonment resulted from a disastrous fire. (Cambs. HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1017844, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 29708
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 363963.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01311.

Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 225
  Page, Wm , Proby, Granville and Inskip Ladds, S. (eds), 1936, VCH Huntingdonshire Vol. 3 p. 145
  Inskip Ladds, S., 1926, in Page, Wm and Proby, Granville (eds), VCH Huntingdonshire Vol. 1 p. 296
  RCHME, 1926, An inventory of the historical monuments in Huntingdonshire p. 63 No. 3 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage. 1998. Scheduling record: Bruce's Castle: moated site immediately east of Bruce's Castle Farm, SAM 29708

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.
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