Southoe Town Orchard (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Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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: TL183646
Latitude 52.26732° Longitude -0.26816°

Southoe Town Orchard has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

"To the east of the Rectory is a homestead moat which probably marks the site of the house....where John de Lovetot was born in 1298. The house was said to be in ruin in 1350 and probably was not rebuilt....." (VCH).
A water-filled homestead moat,in good condition except for the north arm which is dry (F1 FGA 20-MAY-68). (PastScape)

ring-work south-west of the church excavated in 1942. The excavation produced pottery from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, together with ornamented bronze strip strip, tweezers, arrow-heads and schist hones. (Renn 1973)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 363280.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00604.

Books
- 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. 2 online transcription
  Inskip Ladds, S., 1926, in Page, Wm and Proby, Granville (eds), VCH Huntingdonshire Vol. 1 p. 304
Periodical Articles
- Renn, D.F., 1959, 'Mottes: a classification' Antiquity Vol. 33 p. 106-12 (listed as successor to Manor Farm)
  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

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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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