Pamphill, Abbott Street Wood (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Pamphill.
In the historic county of Dorset.
Modern Authority of Dorset.
1974 county of Dorset.
Medieval County of Dorset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST98500065
Latitude 50.80541° Longitude -2.02264°

Pamphill, Abbott Street Wood has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

ENCLOSURE 98500065, in Abbot Street Copse, lies on a spur of the Reading Beds about 125 ft. above O.D. It is roughly oval in plan, 100 ft. across from E. to W. and 75 ft. from N.to S. It is bounded by a low bank up to 15 ft. across and rarely more than 2 ft. high, with a ditch 12 ft. across and 2 ft. deep outside it. There is no obvious entrance and the interior is featureless. The enclosure lies in the fork between two hollow-ways, probably later than itself (RCHME).
Scrub clearance in Abbot Street Copse has led to the discovery of an earthwork which could be the remains of a motte-and-bailey (Hall and Peem). (PastScape).

Comments

Dorset HER record as enclosure of unknown date. Although called a 'motte and bailey' there is no description of a mound. The site was known to the RCHME but not interpreted as a motte, that interpretation was made after scrub clearance of the site in the 1980's. A church, a DMV and a manor house of medieval date are all within 500m. Fairly small enclosure. Close to line of Roman road, but not a centre for modern roads or footpaths. Gatehouse suspects Iron Age enclosure rather than medieval.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 209498.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3 016 093.

Books
- RCHME, 1975, An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset Vol. 5: east p. 53 no. 93 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Hall, T. and Peem, R., 1985, CBA Group 12: Newsletter Vol. 12 p. 13

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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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