Haughton Duck Decoy (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Haughton.
In the historic county of Nottinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Nottinghamshire.
1974 county of Nottinghamshire.
Medieval County of Nottinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK68207178
Latitude 53.23852° Longitude -0.97978°

Haughton Duck Decoy has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A motte and bailey castle of the late C11 or early C12. The castle now stands within dense woodland, although it would have once been visible from nearby Bothamsall Castle. The motte is one of the largest in Nottinghamshire at 11m high by 40m diameter at the base. The bailey area is very difficult to interpert, however a substantial semi-circular ditch lies 100m south of the motte. The site was later redeveloped as part of the formal grounds of Haughton Hall and incorporated a duck decoy, ornamental lakes and the motte was transformed into a prospect mound with spiral terrace. (Wright 2008)

Comments

Now isolated but was near site of DMV and some ruins remain of the old parish church at SK 69117298 1.5km away.
Site seems to have scheduled as a motte and bailey in 1978 but otherwise seems to have missed the attention of castellogists before then and only by Wright since then. The history as a duck decoy gun mound dominates its recording and the alteration of a spiral terrace has made it look unlike a motte. The adaptation of an old motte and bailey in low lying marshy land into a duck decoy and shooting mount would have been fairly straight forward but building such a site from scratch is also possible although rather more expensive.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1008240, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 23205
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 320479.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) M4452.

Books
- Wright, James, 2008, Castles of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council) p. 43, 66
  Bonnett, F., 1910, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Nottinghamshire Vol. 2 p. 401 (as duck decoy) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Blagg, T.M., 1931, 'Haughton Hall and Haughton Chapel' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 35 (as duck decoy) p. 6-7 view online copy (hall) view online copy (chapel)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 481 online copy

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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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