Ogbourne St Andrew (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Ogbourne St Andrew.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.
Medieval County of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU18877223
Latitude 51.44970° Longitude -1.72980°

Ogbourne St Andrew has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Small rather ill-preserved motte. (King 1983)

A Bronze Age bowl barrow situated in the corner of Ogbourne St Andrew Churchyard. Excavations in 1885 by Henry Cunnington located primary Bronze Age cremation, an Anglo-Saxon inhumation and about twenty intrusive inhumations thought to be part of the medieval churchyard. In 1974 the barrow was visible as an earthwork 23 metres in diameter, 1.6 metres high with an 0.3 metre deep mutilation in the top. (PastScape)

The identification of a low earthen mound within the churchyard of St Andrew's, Ogbourne St. Andrew (SU 189723), as a motte, albeit a weak or mutilated example (King 1983, 500), seems equally specious. Excavation of the mound in the nineteenth century revealed a series of central cremations with intrusive Saxon and medieval inhumations (Cunnington 1885, 345-48). In addition, documentary evidence suggests that the feature served as a windmill mound in the post-medieval period (VCH Wilts. XII 1983, 147). A close spatial relationship between motte and parish church is a recurrent feature within the lowland zone of medieval Britain (Creighton 1997, 30-31), whilst the coincidence of barrow and church is not unknown (Morris 1989, 40-41, 255-58). Here, however, the insufficient magnitude of the mound (it is elevated little more than c. 1 .5m) and lack of a bailey, combined with clear evidence of burials within the mound, confirm its origins as a round barrow and recommend strongly against the thesis that it was adapted as a motte. (Creighton 2000)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005680, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wi199
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 221486.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) SU17SE609.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- The Modern Antiquarian
  The Megalithic Portal
  Wiltshire Heritage
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 500
  Crowley, D.A. (ed), VCH Wiltshire Vol. 12 p. 147 online transcription
  Pugh, R.B. and Crittall, Elizabeth (ed), 1957, VCH Wiltshire Vol. 1 Part 1 p. 186
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 2000, 'Early Castles in the Medieval Landscape of Wiltshire' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 93 p. 116 (reject) online copy
  Cunnington, 1885, 'Barrow at Ogbourne St Andrew, Wilts' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 22 p. 345-8 online copy

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	Scheduling
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