Abingdon, Serpenhills (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Shippon; Northcourt

In the civil parish of Abingdon.
In the historic county of Berkshire.
Modern Authority of Oxfordshire.
1974 county of Oxfordshire.
Medieval County of Berkshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU50389842
Latitude 51.68221° Longitude -1.27304°

Abingdon, Serpenhills has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a Linear Defence or Dyke although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Traces of a bank and ditch c. 390' long extend along a footpath leading to Radley, on the N. side of a large field opposite the turn to Northcourt, on the upper Oxford Road, near Abingdon. Much slighter traces of a bank extend for the same distance on the east side, but nothing was visible on the other two sides. The site is comparable with the unfinished Park Wood intrenchments at Hampstead Norris (SU 57 NW 14) and it fits the position, described by Leland, of an earthwork called 'Serpenhill'. All traces of this earthwork have been destroyed by a housing estate. (PastScape–ref. Huntingford)

Comments

Serpenhil is clearly a corruption of Serpent hill – showing the linear nature of the work in Leland's time.
Leland reports this as the site of C9 battle between the Saxons and the Danes and called it the remains of camp trenches. However, Huntingford recorded this as one a several linear earthworks crossing the line of pre-historic and Saxon routeways, and this is a more probably function. Its recorded form, as a linear bank and ditch, is not at all suggestive of a castle, despite being listed by King, and it is unlikely to have had any use after 1000CE.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 237998.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D2918.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- David Nash Ford's Historic Buildings of Berkshire
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 13
Periodical Articles
- Huntingford, G.W.B., 1936, 'The Ancient Earthworks of North Berkshire' Berkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 40 p. 164-5 download copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 35
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 76 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.

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