Upton St Leonard moat (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Kimsbury; Castle End Bungalow

In the civil parish of Upton St Leonards.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO86581234
Latitude 51.80960° Longitude -2.19602°

Upton St Leonard moat has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are uncertain remains.

Comments

The site is no more closely identified in the online archaeological databases than being in square SO8612. In this square are two Kimsbury house names (Kimsbury Farm at SO865125 is close to a spring) however the description seems to be more that of the spring at SO866123 (near Castle End Bungalow). Baddeley certain knew of that site and had an interest in it since he excavated here in 1921 (see PastScape 115563) finding "Pottery, a bill-hook, a fibula of 2nd century type and a human skull" although these Roman finds do not suggest a medieval site. His given history of 1921 seems to come from Bazeley.
The lack of information suggests this was not generally accepted as the site of a moated manor house. Elgar of Kimsbury certainly existed and had a house in this area but the evidence for it being moated is scant; the bury part of the name probably referring to the overlooking Iron Age hill fort (The 'castle end' name certainly refers to the hill fort); the 'boundary ditch' may be a relic of a possible longer boundary marker (see Nielsen), a misinterpretation on quarry works (numerous small quarries lie at the foot of the ridge), a drainage feature or some other such.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 115558; 115563.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3819.

Books
- Baddelely, W St Clair, 1929 (2edn), A Cotteswold Manor (Longmans, Green and Co) p. 20
Periodical Articles
- Nielsen, C., 1999, 'A possible medieval boundary wall on Painswick Beacon Common' Glevensis Vol. 32. p. 39 online copy
  Baddelely, W St Clair, 1921, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 27 p. 105
  Bazeley, Wm, 1882-3, 'History of Prinknash Park' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 7 p. 269 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
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