Weedon Lois Castle Mound

Description

Castle Hill at Weedon Lois is one of seven surviving ringworks in Northamptonshire and its original history and ownership are well documented. In addition, it forms part of a distinctive cluster of ringworks with Culworth, Sulgrave and Canons Ashby, and as such, has considerable potential for retaining evidence concerning the relationship between this group of sites.
Castle Hill ringwork at Weedon Lois lies in the centre of the village, adjacent to the village green and to the east of the parish church of St Peter and St Mary. The ringwork has a sub-rectangular bank approximately 3m to 4m high which surrounds a central area about 23m across. The interior of the mound is higher than the surrounding land and in places, particularly on the south of the site where there has been a little disturbance, the bank is level with the interior. There is a slight impression of a ditch up to 5m wide on the east and north east of the ringwork, within the area of the village green. On the west and south of the ringwork the line of the ditch is indicated by the modern sunken roadway. This ringwork is considered to have been constructed as a defensive earthwork by Ghilo of Picquigni, who was recorded at the time of Domesday as holding Weedon as the head manor of his estates. It is known too that he held part of the estate at Sulgrave with two other persons, one of whom owned land at Culworth. Ringworks are also preserved at both of these sites. (Scheduling Report)

Motte or Ringwork (SP 602470; Figs. 13 and 120), stands in the centre of Weedon Lois village, immediately E. of the church and on the W. side of The Green, on Boulder Clay at 145 m. above OD.
Nothing is known of the history of this site, but in 1086 Weedon was held by Ghilo who also held the adjoining parishes of Sulgrave and Culworth (VCH Northants., I (1902), 344–5). The earthworks at Weedon may have resembled ringworks at Culworth and Sulgrave and the three sites may have been contemporary and constructed by the same man. Excavations at Sulgrave have indicated that the ringwork there was constructed in the late 11th century.
The remains are tree-covered and in poor condition; as a result it is almost impossible to recover their original form. They now consist of a roughly rectangular raised area, some 2 m. high, with a flat top, but with traces of a low bank along its N. side. There is no indication of a ditch and the road to the W. and the footpath to the S. both appear to have been cut back into the original mound. The gardens of the house to the S. of the site are also raised to much the same height as the castle mound, and this has led to the suggestion that there may have been a bailey here (OS Record Cards), but this idea can only be confirmed by excavation.
The relationship of the ringwork to the green and to the existing street plan is interesting. It is possible that both the ringwork and the gardens to the S. might be encroachments on an older and larger green. Alternatively the green could have evolved from the abandoned castle site in the later medieval period. In the S.W. corner of the mound are traces of stonework said to be the abutments of a feature called the Japanese Bridge and perhaps the relic of an 18th or 19th-century garden feature (OS Record Cards). (RCHME)