Stratton Audley Court Close (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Stratton Audley.
In the historic county of Oxfordshire.
Modern Authority of Oxfordshire.
1974 county of Oxfordshire.
Medieval County of Oxfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP60932592
Latitude 51.92856° Longitude -1.11514°

Stratton Audley Court Close has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

South-east of the church in a meadow called Court Close, which lies in the bend of a stream, is the site of the Audleys' medieval castle, now destroyed. It was to repair this building that James Audley was granted oak from Brill forest in 1263, and it was here that his widow was living in 1274. The castle was inclosed by a rectangular moat which may be on the site of an earlier Romano-British inclosure. The angles of the castle's foundations were excavated about 1870. (VCH 1959)

A plain rectangular moat enclosing the site of the castle now destroyed, with entrance from the north-west, remains in a field called 'Court Close,' east of the church. The work lies on low ground in the bend of a stream and about half a mile to the east of the Roman Way from Alchester, which is supposed to explain the first part of the name of this village. This situation is, perhaps, worth noting in view of the suggestion that these moated enclosures may mark the sites of more ancient works, and also in this respect is the fact that its plan corresponds as regards its relation to the compass points with those of the rectangular enclosures in this county supposed to be ancient, its sides running south-west to north-east and north-west to south-east. (VCH 1907)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006347, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ox153
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 341053.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1125.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 76
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 386
  Lobel, Mary D. (ed), 1959, VCH Oxfordshire Vol. 6 p. 324-33 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Potts, W., 1907, in Page, Wm (ed), 'Ancient Earthworks' VCH Oxfordshire Vol. 2 p. 330 (plan) online transcription
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1910, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1258-66) Vol. 5 p. 293 online copy

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.
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