Periwinkle Hill, Barkway

Description

At Periwinkle Hill, opposite Rokey Wood, is a moated mound with two small baileys, rapidly becoming level through constant ploughing. (VCH 1914)

Ploughed-out site beside footpath east of Reed; the cropmark resembles a small motte-and-bailey. (Renn 1971)

A small moated mound with a bailey on the NE, partly sub-divided by a branch from the ditch which surrounds the whole. No traces of ramparts remain. The eastern arm of the moat is wet. Oval in shape,it measures 280 ft in length and 230 ft in width. In poor condition through ploughing and the erection of farm buildings on its western half (RCHME; VCH 1908).
Periwinkle Hill, a low broad ridge, is ploughed annually, reducing the "motte" to a height of 1.5m, and spreading it to a vague oval shape, 36.0m WNW-ESE by 24.0m. All that remains of the so called "bailey" is the outer scarp of the ditch, 0.5m maximum height, in the W arc.
The classification of the earthwork as a motte and bailey can be neither confirmed nor denied by ground inspection. AP's suggest small enclosures, possible building steadings and a track occupying the E side of the "bailey". The ditch around the "motte" to the N and E has squarish corners unlike a motte. According to farmworkers much pottery has been found on the site, though none of it was retained. No buildings or earthworks shown on Enclosure Map (1808) (F1 NKB 23-FEB-73). (PastScape)

Cropmarks/earthworks of a possible motte and bailey type earthwork. APs show cropmarks and slight earthworks comprising two parallel linear ditches (possibly trackways) leading to a D-shaped enclosure ditch (approx. 80m x 70m) and a vague oval mound (approx. 35m in diameter). Within the enclosure are rectangular subdivisions which could be building steadings. Ploughed annually, the mound survives to a mere 1m high and the enclosure ditch to approx. 30cms deep in 1984. This is supposed to be the castle belonging to the chief manor of Reed. (Hertfordshire HER)

Comments

This site was seriously damaged by ploughing by the start of the C20, however the earthwork is shown on the 1878 OS map, marked as 'moat' but in a plan not unlike a motte and bailey castle although it is small. The site lies close to a bridleway half way between Barkway and Reed. It is on the springline. It seems likely this represent the site of a manor house of one of several manors in Barkway, geographically it would seem likely that this was Rokey although the history of this manor, given in the VCH (1914 p. 33) is fairly scant. The earliest mentioned holders, from the early C14, do not seem to have been knights and the form of service by which the manor was held is not mentioned. It was subsumed into Newsells manor in the C15 and presumably any house on Periwinkle Hill went out of use at this time. It may be speculated that for some reason, possibly a need to keep up with more high status neighbours, a holder of Rokey, some time in the C12, built the manor in the form of a small castle, possibly to reflect some military service duties (although as a sergeant rather than a knight). However it is also possible that Periwinkle Hill was a rather more ordinary square moat, of which there are many nearby manors, that was damaged in such a fashion as to give misleading impression of being a small motte and bailey.