Scoulton Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Scoulton.
In the historic county of Norfolk.
Modern Authority of Norfolk.
1974 county of Norfolk.
Medieval County of Norfolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TF96840262
Latitude 52.58567° Longitude 0.90416°

Scoulton Motte has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of Motte and Bailey. B Cozens-Hardy owns a sketch plan made circa 1850.
The remains of the earthworks still exist of the once famous castle of the Fitz-Langs close by the celebrated mere (Scoulton mere) (Bryant 2896).
There are no surveyable remains at the indicated site which is however topographically suitable for defence. The enclosed oval field is very slightly raised above the surrounding area reaching a maximum height of 0.4 m.
Despite the reference to "the once famous castle ...", extensive research has produced no other mention; it was confirmed that the family owned lands at Scoulton in the 13th/15th centuries but no mention of a residence could be found.
Tithe maps consulted carry no indicative field names (F1 JB 24-JAN-73). (PastScape)

An oval enclosure is recorded half a mile north of Abergavenny Farm. It is believed that this is the earthwork of the castle built by Constantine Mortimer that was licensed by Edward II. The site was ploughed in 1945 but the damage this may have caused has not been determined. It has been suggested that the castle site lies to the south (NHER 8809) but it still unclear where exactly the castle was situated. A study of enclosure and tithe maps has not provided any place name evidence to indicate where the medieval castle stood. (Norfolk HER)

Comments

In 1319 Oct 16, Constantinus de Mortuo Mari (Constantin Mortimer) was granted a licence to crenellate Sculton, county Norfolk. The location of this house is not securely identified but was in this parish. Two possible sites are identified this supposed motte and a lost moat site
Gatehouse considers the Scoulton Moat as the slightly more tenable location for the licenced Mortimer House. It is, of course, possible the licenced house was a new build on a new site and both of these sites represent the location of succeeding manor houses. Equally the evidence that either is a manor house site is slight. There were also two manors in Scoulton both of which were of sufficient status to expect to have a moated manor house.
There is an oval enclosure here but this doesn't appear to be much raised above ground level. The site is isolated from modern settlement, no evidence of medieval settlement but Scoulton does seem to be a parish of dispersed settlement, without any clear nucleus. Next to a brick kiln marked on 1891 map.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 358596.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 8808.

Books
- See Scoulton Moat bibliography
  Bryant, T.H., 1896, Churches of Norfolk Hundred of Wayland (Norwich Mercury) p. 40

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.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio