Weston Jones Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Norbury.
In the historic county of Staffordshire.
Modern Authority of Staffordshire.
1974 county of Staffordshire.
Medieval County of Staffordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ76782427
Latitude 52.81553° Longitude -2.34587°

Weston Jones Motte has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

"Early burial mound or low". Gregory, 1/4 mile NE of Weston Jones, in Weston Jones parish. Oval, diameters 180 ft & 150 ft, 8 ft high. Altitude 300 ft. (VCH)
Small oval field shown and described as "Castle Bank." (Tithe Map, Weston Jones, 1844)
Large oval mound situated on low-lying ground on the flood plain of a small stream. The mound is flat topped and measures 67m by 50m by 2.5m high. There are remains of a ditch with outer bank on the NW & SE quadrants. There is no certain evidence of a bailey.
The field name - 'Castle Bank' - suggests that this may be a castle mound but the poor topographical position makes this uncertain. (F1 VGB 08-AUG-58)
No change: published 1:2500 survey correct. Probably a low motte without bailey. (F2 ASP 20-SEP-74)
An early circular motte at Weston Jones. (Palliser) (PastScape)

Comments

Isolated mound, and probably even more isolated in medieval times when the surround land may well have been marshy, suggesting the mound is a practical building platform, designed to get a house out of waterlogged ground rather than a defensive feature. However, the expense of such construction, and the associated castle placename, may well suggest this was the site of a manor house of, at least, knightly status. While marsh might been seen as useless land it actually contained a number of valuable resources, not least of which was water fowl (Defined by custom as a type of fish and therefore something that could be consumed on 'fast' days - which in medieval times were not just Fridays and the whole of Lent but also Wednesdays, Saturdays and Advent. There is some discussion as to how awful freshwater fish actually are to eat but most people do prefer duck and waterfowl is certainly easier to prepare than most freshwater fish).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 74142.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00833.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 1997, Castles and Moated Mansions of Staffordshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 62
  Burne, S.A.H., 1958, in Midgley, L.M. (ed), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 4 p. 155 (where called a motte)
  Lynam, Charles, 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm. (ed), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 1 p. 378 (as burial mound) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Palliser, D.M., 1972, 'Staffordshire Castles: A Provisional List' Staffordshire Archaeology Vol. 1 p. 5-8

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.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio