GATEHOUSE
The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.
 
 
Home
The listings
Other Info
Books
Links
Downloads
Contact
 
Print Page 
 
Next Record 
Previous Record 
Back to list 

New Moat Motte

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Nova Mota

In the community of New Moat.
In the historic county of Pembrokeshire.
Modern authority of Pembrokeshire.
Preserved county of Dyfed.

OS Map Grid Reference: SN06362536
Latitude 51.89305° Longitude -4.81533°

New Moat Motte has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

The earthworks of a motte and bailey castle can be seen at New Moat. The motte is about 40m in diameter and 5.0m high, having a summit area 20m in diameter; a low mound, 7.0m in diameter, set at the centre of the motte summit, is thought unlikely to represent a building, or structure. The mound is ditched and counterscarped, some 54m overall diameter. OS County series (Pembroke. XVII.16 1889) depicts a water-filled moat. The motte is set astride the eastern side of a subrectangular, round-angled bailey enclosure, about 125m NNE-SSW by up to 80m, this being defined by banks, or scarps and showing indications of a ditch, or moat. Further earthworks have been noted, some 200m to the south-west, where OS County series shows 'the Mote (site of)' (NAR SN02NE23), whilst a linear earthwork feature is apparent on aerial photographs leading north-east from the motte (RCAHMW 89-CS 548); these features may relate to the medieval borough; burgesses, but no market, being recorded at New Moat in 1326 (Kissock 1997, 132). (Coflein–ref. Kissock)

The monument comprises the remains of a motte and bailey castle, a military stronghold built during the medieval period. A motte and bailey castle comprises a large conical or pyramidal mound of soil or stone (the motte) surrounded by, or adjacent to, one or more embanked enclosures (the bailey). Both may be surrounded by wet or dry ditches and could be further strengthened with palisades, revetments, and/or a tower on top of the motte. The motte measures 60ft in diameter across the top and 20ft high and is surrounded by a wet ditch. There is a 3ft counterscarp bank outside the ditch in places. The bailey bank starts on the south and turns in a southwesterly direction. This is almost completely ploughed out. (Scheduling Report)
Comments

The name does suggest this was a new castle on a virgin site and the base for a planned new town, which given the size of the parish church may have had some initial success, but ultimately failed to flourish as a town.
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
Coflein   County HER   Scheduling        
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      

Sources of information, references and further reading
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 07/07/2016 09:28:14
Home | Books | Links | The Fortifications and Castles | Help | Downloads | Author Information | Contact

¤¤¤¤¤