Rabbit Berries (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Oval Mount

In the civil parish of Hopton Castle.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO367765
Latitude 52.38312° Longitude -2.93044°

Rabbit Berries has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a bowl barrow, situated at the top of a natural knoll on the lower slopes of an east facing scarp, overlooking the Clun Valley. The knoll rises steeply on the west and more gently on the east side, where it blends in with the general slope of the land. The barrow itself includes an earthen mound which has been created by artificially steepening the sides of the knoll. The resulting change in profile of the slope is visible c.3m-4m below the summit, and the mound itself is roughly circular in plan, with a diameter of 30m. Additional material for the construction of the mound will have been obtained from a surrounding quarry ditch, which is no longer visible at the surface. However, this feature was recorded in 1970 as a shallow depression up to 3m wide, and can be seen as a distinct crop mark on aerial photographs taken in 1989. The monument is one of several bowl barrows in the Clun Valley, at least two of which were developed during the medieval period as motte castles. All these monuments are scheduled separately, the closest being the motte at Buckton, some 3.6km to the south east, SM 27489. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1014888, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 27532
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 106684.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01165.

Books
- Remfry, Paul M., 1994, Hopton Castle 1066 to 1305 (SCS Publishing: Worcestershire)
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 73 (reject)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 425 (Hopton No. 2)
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 384-5
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 1996, Scheduling Papers (Revision, 01/08/1996)
  Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, 1983, Scheduled Monument Report on SAM 14941

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.
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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.
Help is acknowledged.

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