South Moreton 'siege work' (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SU56248833
Latitude 51.59110° Longitude -1.18958°

South Moreton 'siege work' has been described as a Siege Work although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Further north from South Moreton's conquest castle, surrounding a manor house that may date back to C12, are the extensive remains of the moat of a Siege-Castle of King Stephen 's reign. In the 1150s, the King was busy trying to prevent his cousin, the Empress Matilda, from appropriating his throne. During a fierce Civil War, the Empress' main HQ was at Wallingford and Moreton Castle is thought to have been one of three built to keep her forces in check. (Nash - britannia.com)

The earthwork remains of a Medieval moat at SU 5624 8834 which forms an irregular asymmetrical enclosure 85 x 130m. The site is masked to the south-west by the incursion of the houses of South Moreton. Attached to the north-western and north-eastern corners of the moat are two short lengths of bank. No internal features were visible. (PastScape–ref. Small, 1992)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 237494.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2700.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Britannia America's Gateway to the British Isles since 1996
  David Nash Ford's Historic Buildings of Berkshire
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 11
  Page, Wm and Ditchfield, P.H. (eds), 1923, VCH Berkshire Vol. 3 p. 498-504 (manorial history) online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Spurrell, M., 1995, 'Containing Wallingford Castle, 1146-53' Oxoniensia Vol. 60 p. 257-70 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Small, Fiona, 3-12-1992, Thames Valley NMP (RCHME)

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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.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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