Acton Bank

Description

Bronze Age round barrow or ploughed down prehistoric or Roman enclosure, or motte and bailey, surviving as an earthwork. The cropmark remains of large circular enclosure with two annex enclosures were seen occupying the same location as the alleged round barrow and mapped from aerial photographs. (PastScape)

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a false crest towards the southern tip of Acton Bank Hill. The barrow is visible as a plough-spread mound 27m in diameter and 1.3m high on its northern upslope side and 2.5m high on its downslope south side. Although there is no visible evidence of the ditch from which material would have been quarried for the construction of the barrow, one will survive as a buried feature 2m wide surrounding the mound. (EH scheduling report 1995)

Remnant of castle mound now ploughed over and reduced in height (VCH).
Rejected as a castle site (Hoog and King; Spurgeon).
A grass covered round barrow, 27 m in diameter, 2m in height, situated on a false crest on a south facing slope of pasture. No visible remains of a ditch. OS FI 1973 (OS Record card).
Aerial photography has revealed a plausible bailey ditch to the south (Oblique aerial photographs Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust. 1981)
Further photography has demonstrated an additional smaller rectangular enclosure abutting on the SW side of the bailey, perhaps a small outer bailey (Oblique aerial photographs Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust. 1981).
Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1: Low score as one of 46 Motte and bailey castles; Medium score as one of 93 Bowl Barrows (Horton Wendy B. 1990/ 1991. MPP Evaluation File).
Scheduling affirmed in 1995. Scheduling description: The monument includes a bowl barrow located on a false crest towards the southern tip of Acton Bank Hill. The barrow is visible as a plough-spread mound 27m in diameter and 1.3m high on its northern upslope side and 2.5m high on its downslope south side. Although there is no visible evidence of the ditch from which material would have been quarried for the construction of the barrow, one will survive as a buried feature 2m wide surrounding the mound (Scheduling Report).
The site was mapped by the Marches Uplands Mapping Project in 1994 when it was interpreted as three cropmark features, a motte (272/8/1), a bailey (272/8/2) and an annexe (272/8/3). (1993/ 1994. Marches Uplands Mapping Project (MUMP) MORPH records (2006 version). Marches Uplands Survey. MU.272.8) (Shropshire HER)

Comments

A mound identified as a motte in 1908, then identified as pre-historic bell barrow and rejected as a motte in the 1960's. A set of aerial photographs taken in early 1980s (but unknown to King in 1983) show, on a field that has been ploughed, cropmarks of one and, possibly, a second attached semi-circular features looking entirely like a classic castle semi-lunar bailey. It is not clear if these photographs were known and examined when the site was evaluated for MMP and then scheduled in the early 1990s.
The location is certainly that of a barrow and the mound seems to be a barrow. The question remains as if it was adapted to form a motte with a small bailey. The location, just above the small settlement of Acton is not unlikely for such a thing. The tenurial history is somewhat obscure but the township may have been held by a subtentant who owed some castle guard duty at Clun Castle. It is, therefore, feasible that a bowl barrow, close to the original farmstead, was adapted to form a motte, probably of many symbolic value reflecting the sergeantry military service of a sub-tenant, for a period although it seems likely the practicalities of farming meant the original farmstead in the valley below the hill continued in use or was quickly resettled so that no paths to the mound became established.