Fleet Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Fleet.
In the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Modern Authority of Lincolnshire.
1974 county of Lincolnshire.
Medieval County of Lincolnshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TF38562311
Latitude 52.78778° Longitude 0.05323°

Fleet Motte has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

The site was excavated in 1913 but no report made. Pottery in the museum of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, from this excavation, included two sherds classified by Hawks as 1.A. 'A'. These probably came from the old land surface. The rest of the pottery examined by G C Dunning was dated from 11th or 12th century to 18th century AD. The evidence of the pottery and former existence of a mound is suggestive of a motte or castle mound. The mound and a possible outer ditch show as soil marks on A.P's (Thompson).
Area under crop. Lincoln and Spalding museums have no record of material from this site. Detail of mound cancelled on A.M. (F1 FC 08-JUL-65).
TF 385232 Medieval and supposed Roman pottery among finds from the 1913 excavations (as described by Thompson). Now only a wide raised area marks the site of the medieval manor. This may have incorporated IA pottery but the possibility of a Saxon date cannot be entirely excluded (Hallam).
H Healey viewed the pottery in 1972: Middle Saxon and Saxo-Norman types included. See also TF 32 SE 18 (Majoram).
TF 385232. Probable motte (King). (PastScape)

Site excavated in 1913, no report. Pottery in museum of Spalding Gents Society from excavation, including two sherds unclassified by Hawks as IA 'a' probably came from old land surface. Rest of pottery examined by G Dunning dated 11th to 18th century. Evidence of pottery and former existence of mound is suggestive of motte. The mound and a possible outer ditch show as soilmarks on AP's. (Thompson).
Area under crop. Lincoln and Spalding Museum say they have no material from this site. Site marked on old map as 'tumulus'. Considerable mound evidently but no moat mentioned. Excavated Sept 1912. Account of excavation in Spalding Gents Society minute book, 1913.
H Hallam considers it a site of original manor of de Moulton family.
Sherds of pottery from the site mentioned in the Spalding Gents Soc noted by S J Hallam. these noted as possible Iron Age, Saxon, and as late 15th century. seen by H Healey in 1972: include Shelly, Stamford, Torksey- Thetford type, and Bourne a cooking pot. one rare Stamford stamp.
(examination of site jan 1973,1975,1976. Slight mound exists though most levelled 1947, when much animal bone seen. Dark ashy soil on highest part with animal bone. much pottery including middle Saxon Shelly, Ipswich, Thetford types, Stamford and one grass-tempered sherd. medieval, post medieval and later pottery increasing N towards the church. more work was carried out in 1979-80. (Lincolnshire HER)

Comments

In this part of Lincolnshire it may well have been this mound would have been destroyed by agricultural anyway although it would have been better had the excavation been better published. The site may well be that of a manor house at the other end of the village of Fleet from the church. The finds of Saxon pottery suggest this was a pre-Conquest manorial site although the date of this mound, if it was a motte, rather than a natural mound used as a dry building platform, is not known.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 353734.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 22265.

Books
- Osborne, Mike, 2010, Defending Lincolnshire: A Military History from Conquest to Cold War (The History Press) p. 32
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 48
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 260
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 189
  Hallam, S.J., 1970, 'Settlement around the Wash' in P. Salway et al (eds), The Fenland in Roman Times: studies of a major area of peasant colonization with a Gazetteer covering all known sites and finds (Royal Geographical Society) p. 315
Periodical Articles
- Marjoram, J., 1960, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society reports and papers Vol. 8 p. 41-3
  Thompson, F.H., 1955-6, 'Archaeological notes for 1954' Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society reports and papers Vol. 6 p. 11-12
  Thompson, F.H., 1953-4, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society reports and papers Vol. 5
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 431 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.
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