Old Mills Moat (The Gatehouse Record)

Old Mills Moat

In the community of Trewern.
In the historic county of Montgomeryshire.
Modern authority of Powys.
Preserved county of Powys.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ27751289
Latitude 52.70871° Longitude -3.07067°

Old Mills Moat has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Old Mills Moat (SJ 277 129), though previously regarded as a medieval moated site, is unusual. It occupies sloping ground between the foot of the Breidden Hills and the R. Severn, and consists of a strong quadrangular enclosure of 0.40 ha (0.99 acres), with a larger annexe of 0.85ha (2.1 acres) on more level ground to the W., extending to within 32 m of the Severn. The smaller enclosure is defended on its upper E. side by a wide irregular bank, fronted by a massive wet ditch, 8 m wide. Here, the ground outside rises so steeply that the counterscarp of the ditch is up to 2 m higher than the top of the internal bank, but its steep scarp and the wet moat constitute a formidable obstacle. A rill feeds the ditch and flows along the N. flank, skirting a more modest bank. To the S., the strong upper E. bank and ditch turn to make a well-formed acute angle, but they continue to the W. for only 22 m, beyond which a marshy hollow defines this flank. A scarp and modest wet ditch mark the W. side facing the annexe. The interior, which measures 80 m N-S. and 40 m to 60 m E-W, is very irregular, but no certain traces of buildings are apparent. The annexe is subdivided by hedges and is much ploughed down, surviving only as a low bank outlining its W. half and no longer visibly connected to the upper enclosure. Until the 19th century, the ancient Gorther Ford crossed the Severn immediately beyond the annexe. The significance of this ford, on the W. boundary of Mercian territory (and the diocese ofHereford) in a long gap in Offa's Dyke, is discussed by Noble. (Spurgeon, 1988)

A subrectangular enclosure, c.84m N-S by 53m, banked, except to the W, and moated. A further, dependent enclosure, c.110m W-E by 80m, on the W is visible now only as a cropmark (Cpat Prn38186). (Coflein)

Moated enclosure. 57m E-W, 85m N-S. Possible earthwork outworks to the south. Ditch 1.4m deep, interior raised 0.6m above ditch floor. Faint trace of possible building platforms. Possible annexe to west. There is a possibility that this site is related in some way to Offa's Dyke. It could be some form of Mercian camp connected either with its construction or its subsequent control. It is very unlike any normal local moated site. Note medieval ford of river Severn adjacent (CHRM). (Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 306994.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 1257; 38186.

Books
- RCAHMW, 1911, An inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Montgomeryshire (HMSO) p. 30 no. 150 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Musson, C.R. and Spurgeon, C.J. 1988, ‘Cwrt Llechrhyd. Llanelwedd: an unusual moated site in central Powys’ Medieval Archaeology Vol. 32 p. 97-109 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 the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), 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.

Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)

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.

This record last updated before 1 February 2016

¤¤¤¤¤

Data >	Coflein	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	Historic Wales	V. O. B.	Geology	LIDAR
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio