Sherrington Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Sherrington.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.
Medieval County of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST96003923
Latitude 51.15232° Longitude -2.05856°

Sherrington Motte has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The Norman castle of the Giffords, at Sherrington has no visible remains of masonry (WAHNM, 1920-2).
This motte is 48m across and rises 5.5m above a 3.5m deep ditch, which widens in the east to form a water-filled moat. Vestiges of a perimeter bank on the top of the motte remain, but there is no trace of any structure. There is no evidence of an associated bailey (Field Investigators Comments–F1 MHB 17-FEB-75).
A ditch 110m NW of the motte was sectioned in 1972 and found to be 25 feet wide. It probably represents a bailey ditch. The enclosure map of Sherrington shows the road pattern to the south of the motte forms a D-shape enclosing the parish church, probably indicating a second bailey (Creighton). (PastScape)

The Sherrington Castle mound survives well and has potential for the recovery of both archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the landscape at the time the site was occupied.
The monument includes a motte castle with surrounding moat set on level ground in the valley of the River Wylye. The motte is 48m across and rises 5.5m above ground level. It has a level top 28m across with traces of a perimeter bank. A ditch, from which material was quarried during construction of the monument, surrounds the motte. This survives as a waterfilled moat to the south, east and north of the mound but is dry to the west. It varies in width between 5m and 25m and is between 2 and 3m deep except to the west where it survives as a buried feature. The site is believed to have been a castle belonging to the Gifford family. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010460, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 12321
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 210836.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) ST93NE450.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Paul Martin Remfry (report by Sally Thomson 2013)
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 100
  Crowley, D.A. (ed), 1995, VCH Wiltshire Vol. 15 p. 237-40 online transcription
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 500
  Pevsner, N. (Revised by Cherry, Bridget), 1975, Buildings of England: Wiltshire (London, Penguin) p. 469
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 2000, 'Early Castles in the Medieval Landscape of Wiltshire' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 93 p. 114-5 online copy
  1973, 'Wiltshire Archaeological Register for 1972' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 68 p. 137-8 online copy
  1920-2, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 41 p. 387 (slight) online copy
  Downman, E.A. and Goddard, E.H., 1919 'Plans of Wiltshire Earthworks' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 40 p. 352 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.
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