Etonbury, Arlesey (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Arlesey.
In the historic county of Bedfordshire.
Modern Authority of Bedfordshire.
1974 county of Bedfordshire.
Medieval County of Bedfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL19273797
Latitude 52.02840° Longitude -0.26259°

Etonbury, Arlesey has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Ringwork and bailey(s) defaced by railway. Record in PastScape as "Supposed Danish earthwork/dock ? Homestead moat/manorial site." but listed as medieval ringwork. King writes - Ringwork with one, or two, baileys and burgus defence; he notes that this earthwork is often ascribed to the Danes.

A probable Danish "harbour" site lies on the River Hiz, but is so mutilated by the construction of the railway and road that its layout is uncertain. (Dyer)

A "rectangular harbour area" measuring 250 ft N-S by 150 ft E-W is apparent, with a smaller enclosure 140 ft by 50 ft leading off from its SW corner. The harbour is fed by a stream running into it from the E, but the location of the original entrance into the river is uncertain. To the N of the harbour are two massive curved banks with external ditches enclosing a fortified area. This may originally have been D-shaped, the straight side abutting the harbour, but it is largely overlaid by the railway. A rough sketch by Lysons (circa 1800) shows an entrance linking the enclosure with the harbour area, but this is no longer visible. It seems certain that it was later used for manorial purposes particularly on the E side (not shown on Dyers' plan). Etonbury, an earthwork of uncertain origin generally as depicted on the plans by Wadmore and Dyer, but since mutilated in the south by a fly-over over the railway, by a sewage trench cut through the centre from N to S in 1972, and by ploughing to the E of Pix Brook. The situation is on the W end of a ridge fading into the drained flood-plain of the River Hiz. (PastScape-field Investigators comments)

Comments

Almost certainly manorial earthworks. Earthworks were clearly too large and complex to just be a homestead moat, although a smaller, later, manorial site within the earthworks is possible. Now heavily damaged. Lowerre and Petre dismiss this as a castle site because of the similarity in form and supposed history with Willington Danish Docks a site which has been excavated and found not to be Danish but C12-C13. However, Etonbury has not been excavated and there remains a possibility of earlier origins, including being a ringwork castle.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 362431.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 395.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
Books
- Petre, James Scott, 2012, The Castles of Bedfordshire (Lavenham: Lavenham Press for Shaun Tyas) p. 99-101 (discounted as castle)
  Lowerre, A.G., 2005, Placing Castles in the Conquest. Landscape, Lordship and Local Politics in the South-Eastern Midlands, 1066-1100 (Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd: BAR British Series 385) p. 217 (C12-C13 moated site)
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 12
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 4
  Dyer, J.F., 1972, 'Earthworks of the Danelaw Frontier' in P.J. Fowler (ed), 1972, Archaeology and the landscape: essays for L V Grinsell p. 222-36
  Wadmore, Beauchamp, 1920, The Earthworks of Bedfordshire (Bedford) p. 57-9
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Goddard, A.R., 1904, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Doubleday, H.Arthur and Page, Wm (eds), VCH Bedfordshire Vol. 1 p. 278-80
Periodical Articles
- Baker, D., 1982, 'Mottes, Moats and ringworks in Bedfordshire: Beauchamp Wadmore revisited' Château Gaillard Vol. 9-10 p. 35-54
  Kennett, D.H., 1973, Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 8 p. 138 online copy (large file)
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Lowerre, A.G., 2004, Placing Castles in the Conquest. Landscape, Lordship and Local Politics in the South-Eastern Midlands, 1066-1100 (PhD thesis: Boston College) p. 440-1

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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.
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