Upper Buckton Farm Mound, Buckton

Description

earthwork and buried remains of a motte castle, situated on floodplain north of the River Teme. It is bounded to the south by a water channel, originally a mill leat, which leaves the river some 700m upstream and rejoins it beyond Buckton itself. The larger part of the monument is in a pasture field, however its north eastern side is fenced off and incorporated into a garden. The remains include an earthen motte mound of roughly oval form, c.45m diameter south west to north east, and c.35m diameter north west to south east. The mound is steep sided, rising to a height of c.4m except to the south west, where the sides are steeper and rise to c.5.2m. The top of the mound is c.26m diameter south west to north east and c.17m north west to south east, and the south west end is raised c.1.2m above the rest of the summit. This raised area extends for c.3m before falling away to a level surface, which rises again slightly towards the northern end of the motte. A shallow depression is visible in the side of the mound in this quarter, and a path has been worn up the edge of this depression to the summit. The motte mound is surrounded by a dry ditch which has been cut away by the mill leat to the south. The ditch is most easily visible to the west and south west, and is up to 8m wide and 0.5m deep. It can be seen as a slight depression around the north of the motte, extending from the pasture field into the garden, to the edge of the patio at the back of Upper Buckton Farmhouse. The monument is just over 1km north west of a similar example at Walford. (Scheduling Report)

Motte & bailey. Hall block with 2 small round towers? There are definite signs of a stone structure on this motte. The hall block could possible be a later house as a structure of this nature is rare on a small motte, but the foundations are pretty massive for a house, there is an associated DMV nearby. (Herefordshire SMR ref. Sterling-Brown)