Oxenhall 'motte' (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Oxenhall.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO711266
Latitude 51.93760° Longitude -2.42111°

Oxenhall 'motte' has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Field immediately south of the church has a marked rise or mound in it which does not appear to be entirely natural in origin. It has the appearance of a considerably eroded and ploughed down castle mound or motte. There is also some indication from APs of ploughed out ditch around the mounded area. It is therefore very tentatively suggested that the church was associated with a defended site. (Gloucestershire HER 14021)
Indication from APs of a ploughed out ditch around mounded area. (Gloucestershire HER 14022)

Comments

The location, next to a church and at the probably site of a entirely lost medieval village, is suggestive of a small castle. (c.f. Dymock Castle Tump 2.5km to the north). However, there is a canal next to the site and canal building produces mounds of spoil. If geophysics was done at the site and ditches were shown this could be a castle or manor house site but spoil heap seems more likely.
N.B. A disused small loop of an extension of the the canal makes this superficially look like a large moated manorial enclosure on the map.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 113399 (DMV).
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 14021; 14022; 5698.

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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.
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