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| Monument Name |
Castle Mound North of St John's Church, Mount Bures |
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| SMR Number |
9161 |
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| Summary |
Mound, c35ft high, and 200ft in diameter at the base. |
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| Media |
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| Associated Media |
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| Description |
Mound, c35ft high, and 200ft in diameter at the base. Round the mound is a ditch, now nearly dry. No definite traces of outer works, but the Norman church (see 0000) stands immediately south of the mound and may originally have stood within the bailey. The work is on high ground which drops sharply towards a stream to the W; on the slope is a nearly rectangular area scarped on three sides, with an oblong depression near the W side. This is probably the site of a terraced garden to the hall. Plan and section of motte in RCHM. <1> JH Round said 'I have been disposed to think that Mount Bures may have been the castle of the Sackvilles, raised perhaps in the anarchy under Stephen (1135-1154) or possibly under Henry I (1100-1135)' - source 3 quoted in OS card. According to OS field officer, AS Philips, the W side of the bailey could be traced along the fence of the graveyard. The rectangular area described by RCHM could be some form of outwork. A depression could be the site of a building of later date. <2> <3> in <2> Other refs: <5> - <8>
Site Assessment = opened by digging. <1> In 1960, the mound was in good condition, ditch and outer bank much mutilated and generally in poor condition. The whole was overgrown with trees and shrubs. <2> The motte is covered by large trees and undergrowth. The early C12 date of the church and the scale in proportions of the motte suggest that the latter is an early example of its type. <4>
AP <9>
Aerial photos <10><11><12>.
Contour survey carried out. The steep-sided earthwork, 60m in diameter at the base, survives to 10m above the present ground surface, and is surrounded by a dry ditch c.3.5m deep and between 10m and 12m wide. Very little evidence of the bailey appeared to have survived. No evidence of a stockade or major fortification ditches was found, although the presence of two parallel ditches indicate a palisade. Contour survey included the pasture field to the north and west of the mound.<13><14> |
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| Monument Type(s) |
MOTTE (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
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| Monument Class(es) |
EARTHWORK
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Period
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1066AD to 1539AD Medieval
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| Status |
Not Known |
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| Administration Area |
MOUNT BURES, COLCHESTER, ESSEX |
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National Grid Reference
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Square: TL93SW
Ref: 904325 |
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| Finds |
None listed
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| Events |
Contour survey of Mount Bures castle by FAU
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Sources
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Desc Text : Geoffrey de Mandeville (Round, JH)
Desc Text : History of Essex (Morant, P) Dated : 1768
Desc Text : Trans Essex Archaeol Soc (Round, JH) New Series, Vol 9, p21 Dated : 1906
Desc Text : An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, Vol. 3 (RCHME) Vol 3, p186 Dated : 1922
Desc Text : The Buildings of England, Essex (Pevsner, N) p274 Dated : 1954
Desc Text : TL93SW03 (unknown) Dated : 1960
Aerial Photo : Mount Bures (Tyler, Sue) Dated : 1986
Scheduling record : DOE Scheduled Ancient Monuments (Department of the Environment) Parts 5-8 Dated : 1986
Map : NMP Cropmark Plot - 1:10,000 (Ingle, CJ, Strachan, D, Tyler, S and Saunders, H) Dated : 1993 - 2010
Monograph : Mount Bures, Essex : Its Lands and its people (McMaster, I and Evans, K) Dated : 1996
Aerial Photo : BW/99/14/6-8 (Strachan, David) Dated : 1999
Aerial Photo : BW/99/9/4 (Strachan, David) Dated : 1999
Aerial Photo : CP/00/14/13-15 (Tyler, Sue) Dated : 2000
Aerial Photo : CP/00/15/2-4 (Tyler, Sue) Dated : 2000
Desc Text : Essex Archaeology and History Vol 33 (Essex Society for archaeology and history) Rachel Clarke pp 378-80 Dated : 2002
Aerial Photo : BW/07/01/14-15 (Saunders, Helen) Dated : 2007
Aerial Photo : CP/07/06/01-05 (Saunders, Helen) Dated : 2007
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