Cransley Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Great Cransley Mound

In the civil parish of Cransley.
In the historic county of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough.
Modern Authority of Northamptonshire.
1974 county of Northamptonshire.
Medieval County of Northamptonshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP82477670
Latitude 52.38214° Longitude -0.78978°

Cransley Motte has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

A motte 16 feet high above the surrounding ditch, with a flat top 45 feet in diameter, in a plantation a 1/4 mile NW of the church at Cransley. A diagonal section has been cut from the mound. There is no trace of a bailey or of stonework. Described as a tumulus on OS 1", 1835 (VCH).
A small motte utilised as a landscaped feature within Cransley Wood (F1 JB 14-OCT-69). (PastScape)

Great Cransley Mound (3 3/4 miles W.S.W. of Kettering). — This small mound, surrounded by a ditch, stands within a plantation a quarter of a mile north-west from the church, 400 feet above sea level, and 100 feet above a stream which flows north-east half a mile east. It is shown on the one-inch Ordnance Survey (1835), and called a 'tumulus,' but was certainly a mote castle mound. As a castle mound it is small in circumference, like many others in Northamptonshire, being only 16 feet high above its ditch; but its situation near the church, and the comparatively large space nearly level on its summit (45 feet in diameter), mark it as having been erected for defensive purposes. The position has no great command, as there is higher land on the west, and the land on the north is higher than that on the south, as will be seen by the section. The story common to castle mounds all over England of a treasure hidden within the mound is current in the district, and a great diagonal section has been cut through (which has permanently injured the work) to seek for this treasure, or perhaps the mound was taken for a grave. There is now no trace of a court or of stonework. (VCH 1906)

Motte (?) (SP 82477670), in Cransley Wood, on Boulder Clay at 122 m. above OD. It consists of a mound 40 m. in diam., 3.5 m. high, and with a flat top 16 m. across. There is a well-marked surrounding ditch, only 1 m. deep except on the W. where it has been recut in modern times. A partially filled-in trench is still visible across the top of the mound, but there is no record of an excavation here. The site is perhaps a motte, placed to overlook and protect the village to the S. However it is possible that it is post-medieval in date and connected with landscaping. The present ditch is certainly too small and narrow for the ditch of a motte, but the existence of what may be part of an earlier ditch on the N.E. is perhaps significant. There is no trace of a bailey or of stonework. The mound is not shown on a map of the village of 1598 (NRO) though this may not be of significance. (RCHME)

Comments

The suggestion this is a motte 'placed to overlook and protect the village' seems contrived. The manorial centre would appear to be Cransley Hall beside the church with no reason to think this was not the site of the medieval manor house. However there were three and later four owners of various lands in medieval Cransley so this may represent the manor house of one of these holdings. The mound is certainly now a focus for a post-Medieval designed landscape

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 345809.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNN27833.

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. 243
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 73
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 315
  RCHME, 1979, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northampton Vol. 2: Central Northamptonshire (HMSO) p. 28-9 online transcription (plan)
  Salzman, L.F., (ed), 1937, VCH Northamptonshire Vol. 4 p. 162-7 (tenurial history) online transcription
  Downman, E.A., 1906, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Serjeantson, R.M., Ryland, W. and Adkins, D. (eds), VCH Northamptonshire Vol. 2 p. 404 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. 522-23

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