Ramsey Booths Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: TL292848
Latitude 52.44574° Longitude -0.09998°

Ramsey Booths Hill has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Within the moat surrounding Ramsey Abbey, and near its southern side, is a curious mound surrounded by a moat. The mound, which goes by the name of Booth's Hill, is not large, but it has been adapted as an ice house in recent years, so its present form cannot be guaranteed as original; it now rises some 16ft above the bottom of the moat, which is itself 4ft below the surrounding surface. It stands about the middle of the S side of the Inclosure, which is 310ft long by about 120ft wide. Within the Inclosure, eastwards of the mound, is a large pond, and there are also three other depressions, but some of these may be Mod. It is possible that this little castle was erected by Geoffrey de Mandeville for his own use when he took possession of the Abbey and quartered his soldiers there. He was killed in 1144, and his son removed the soldiers to Wood Walton. (Pevsner, 1968)

The only visible earthworks in Ramsey are those at Booth's Hill to the south of the abbey site. They consist of a motte surrounded by a moat of irregular oval shape (c. 90m x 35m) which is some 5m at its widest point. The mound of the motte is about 3.5m. To the east there are a large pond and three smaller (modern?) depressions. This motte has been traditionally associated with Geoffrey de Mandeville who took possession of the abbey and quartered his soldiers there during 1140-1144. The mound was converted into an icehouse much later. The western part of this site is presently occupied by 29 Hollow Lane. During the Fenland Survey sherds of fourteenth- seventeenth century pottery and a large quantity of seventeenth century building debris were recorded at this location (Hall 1992, 48). (Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Ramsey.)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004643, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number cb154
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01777.

Books
- Hall, D., 1992, The Fenland Project 6: Southwestern Cambridgeshire Fens (East Anglian Archaeology 56)
  Taylor, Alison, 1986, Castles of Cambridgeshire (Cambridge)
  Pevsner, N., 1968, Buildings of England: Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough p. 335
  RCHME, 1926, An inventory of the historical monuments in Huntingdonshire p. 208-9 no. 3 (plan) online transcription
  Inskip Ladds, S., 1926, in Page, Wm and Proby, Granville (eds), VCH Huntingdonshire Vol. 1 p. 291-2 view unattributed online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 East of England (London: English Heritage) p. 33 online copy
  Cambridgeshire Extensive Urban Survey: Ramsey. Draft Report 29/01/2004. online copy

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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.

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