Scoulton Moat (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Common Hill; Cobbled Meadow

In the civil parish of Scoulton.
In the historic county of Norfolk.
Modern Authority of Norfolk.
1974 county of Norfolk.
Medieval County of Norfolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TF964016
Latitude 52.57745° Longitude 0.89647°

Scoulton Moat 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

A large rectangular moated site at TF 964017. (Clarke, 1958) The site has been levelled. There are no surface remains. No moat is mentioned in local and county histories consulted, APs were consulted with negative results and Tithe and estate maps show no feature or indicative field names. R R Clarke's authority, however, is good (if first-hand). Norwich museum have nothing to add (F1 JB 24-JAN-73). (PastScape)

In 1960, two sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from a moated site west of Abergavenny Farm. This site is called the Cobbled Meadow and a large rectangular moat, double concentric ring ditch and other complex earthworks are visible from the ground as well as the air. It has been speculated that this is the possible castle site (rather than NHER 8808) but this has not been proven. (Norfolk HER)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1319 Oct 16 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Comments

In 1319 Oct 16, Constantinus de Mortuo Mari (Constantin Mortimer) was granted a licence to crenellate Sculton, county Norfolk. The location of this house is not securely identified but was in this parish. Two possible sites are identified this lost moat and a supposed motte site. Gatehouse considers the Scoulton Moat as the slightly more tenable location for the licenced Mortimer House. It is, of course, possible the licenced house was a new build on a new site and both of these sites represent the location of succeeding manor houses. Equally the evidence that either is a manor house site is slight. There were also two manors in Scoulton both of which were of sufficient status to expect to have a moated manor house.
The site is isolated from modern settlement but Scoulton does seem to be a parish of dispersed settlement, without any clear nucleus.
The Norfolk HER record lists this as a Motte and Bailey, presumably on the bases on a cropmark of a ring ditch.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 358584.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 8809.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, Index and Amendments to Mike Salter's English Castles Books (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 9
  Liddiard, R., 2000, Landscapes of Lordship (British Archaeological Reports British Series 309) p. 108
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) (Shown on map of fortified houses of East Anglia as Destroyed)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 308 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 408 online copy
  Blomefield, Francis, 1805, 'Hundred of Wayland: Scoulton' An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk Vol. 2 p. 344-348 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Clarke, R.R., 1958, _CBA Group 7 Bulletin Vol. 5 p. 4
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1903, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward II (1317-21) Vol. 3 p. 395 online copy

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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.

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