Tickenham Court enclosure

Description

The Manor House at Tickenham Court and its attendant earthwork remains are located on an isolated knoll which is a limestone extrusion projecting in a SW arc from the lower slopes of the S facing Failand Ridge escarpment. Although the summit barely attains a height of 10.0m above OD, the knoll represents a visually dominating location with significant strategic advantages, commanding extensive views over the surrounding Kenn Moor area to the W and S. To the N, the knoll is itself overlooked by the limestone escarpment and specifically by the hillfort of Cadbury Camp, c. 500.0m to the N. This bivallate enclosure, c. 3.0 ha in extent with an elaborate N facing entrance, provided evidence of Iron Age as well as Roman occupation. The history of the extant Manor House at Tickenham Court is well documented. A complete hall of late 15th century date survives as does a Solar wing of c. 1500, added to its W end and turning S. RCHME survey in 1992 identified a number of previously unrecorded earthwork features which are set around the House. The most prominent, and potentially important, of these is the substantial circular, partially embanked, lynchetway which occupies the W end of the knoll. Elsewhere, there are the possible remains of gardens, fields and associated features which suggest that the knoll has seen a high level of past activity. Less than c. 200.0m to the E of the Manor House, excavations by the North Somerset Archaeology Research Group revealed part of a building dating to the 3rd century AD. (RCHME Field Investigation 1992 DS McOmish)

Comments

In his gazetter of castle sites in Somerset Stuart Prior includes 'Enclosure - West of Court' at ST457714 described as a the poorly defined earthworks of a large sub-circular enclosure with possible double ditch on North side. He rejects this as a castle site. Presumably somewhere in the county SMR someone had suggested this as a ringwork but no castle studies authority has identified this as a castle.
Tickenham Court is a fine, well preserved, C14 hall house (Grade 2 star listed but there is nothing to suggest it, or its earlier precursors, were fortified.