Southoe Manor Farm (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Southhoe

In the civil parish of Southoe And Midloe.
In the historic county of Huntingdonshire.
Modern Authority of Cambridgeshire.
1974 county of Cambridgeshire.
Medieval County of Huntingdonshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL17906386
Latitude 52.26034° Longitude -0.27408°

Southoe Manor Farm has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Almost circular moat 300ft diameter. Outside moat on S side is a sunk place 100ft by 40ft and 4ft 6in deep; at SW at circular mound, 32ft diameter; some 170ft away on W and about 70fton NW is large moat or fosse with considerable bank, apparently serving as an outer defence on that side; it is very wide at NW corner and has an extension of 22ft in length toward N. (VCH 1928)

Southoe Manor Farm, was subject to limited archaeological excavation in the 1930s. The site has, unfortunately, been destroyed by ploughing. Before its destruction, it had the shape of a roughly circular platform surrounded by a ditch, a form highly reminiscent of a Norman ringwork. Lethbridge and Tebbutt's undertook their excavation before the study of Saxon and medieval pottery was well-advanced, so their attributions of particular ceramic types to particular time periods is open to question. It seems possible, though, that the site did have a late Saxon to early Norman phase, but there was also considerable later occupation on the same site. (Lowerre)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 363251.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00528.

Books
- Lowerre, A.G., 2005, Placing Castles in the Conquest. Landscape, Lordship and Local Politics in the South-Eastern Midlands, 1066-1100 (Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd: BAR British Series 385) p. 238
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 314-15
  RCHME, 1926, An inventory of the historical monuments in Huntingdonshire p. 241 no. 12 online transcription
  Inskip Ladds, S., 1926, in Page, Wm and Proby, Granville (eds), VCH Huntingdonshire Vol. 1 p. 303-305
Periodical Articles
- Renn, D.F., 1959, 'Mottes: a classification' Antiquity Vol. 33 p. 106-12 (listed as precursor to Town Orchard)
  Clayton, G.L., 1948, 'Southoe Manor. Finds in Town Orchard Site' Transactions of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Archaeological Society Vol. 7.1 p. 1-6 online copy
  Lethbridge, T.C. and Tebbutt, C.F., 1939, 'Southoe Manor: preliminary investigations of an early mediaeval moated site at Manor Farm, Southoe, Hunts.' Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society Vol. 38 p. 158-163 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Lowerre, A.G., 2004, Placing Castles in the Conquest. Landscape, Lordship and Local Politics in the South-Eastern Midlands, 1066-1100 (PhD thesis: Boston College) p. 506-8

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.
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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.

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