Chaddleworth, Woolley Farm (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Mitchell Copse, Wooley Farm; Woolley Castle

In the civil parish of Chaddleworth.
In the historic county of Berkshire.
Modern Authority of West Berkshire.
1974 county of Berkshire.
Medieval County of Berkshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU40727956
Latitude 51.51355° Longitude -1.41454°

Chaddleworth, Woolley Farm has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Probable Medieval ring work visible as a cropmark, measuring 46m in diameter and mapped from aerial photographs. A collection of C12 pottery has been found on the site. (PastScape)

A small motte and banks noticed on a property near Fawley. (Kaines-Thomas, 1960) Mr. Kaines-Thomas pointed out Mitchell Copse, Chaddleworth as being the area in which the earthwork was found. It is at SU40727957 and consists of a ringwork formed by a bank with an outer ditch. There is no central mound and no causeway or obvious entrance way. It is not a motte and its inherent weakness suggests that it was of little if any defensive value. A number of probably early C12 sherds (identified by Reading Museum) were found on the surface. The work overlooks the site of Woolley D.M.V. and is probably of medieval origin although its purpose is obscure. (PastScape–ref. field investigators comment, 1964)

Presumably a manorial centre of some sort to the DMV. The manor is recorded as being in the hands of William Peverel in the Domesday Book, but by a family called Forester by the early C13. Woolley House, a late C17 stately home lies 400m NE in a deer park. This is presumably a successor building. Probably not a castle, but a defended manor house of some status.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 233495.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MWB3262.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- David Nash Ford's Historic Buildings of Berkshire
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 13
  Page, Wm and Ditchfield, P.H. (eds), 1923, VCH Berkshire Vol. 3 p. 171-77 (manorial history) online transcription
Periodical Articles
- 1965-6, Berkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 62 p. 74
  Kaines-Thomas, E., 1960, The Archaeological news letter Vol. 6.12 p. 285
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2002, The Lambourn Downs - A Report for the National Mapping Programme (Unpublished document / SWB13937)

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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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