Butthouse Motte, Kings Pyon

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte), and also as a Possible Masonry Castle

There are earthwork remains

NameButthouse Motte, Kings Pyon
Alternative Names
Historic CountryHerefordshire
Modern AuthorityHerefordshire
1974 AuthorityHereford and Worcester
Civil ParishKings Pyon

the earthwork and buried remains of a small motte castle, situated on a south east facing slope above a tributary of Wellington Brook, which runs eastwards into the River Lugg and near the 17th century mansion known as Butthouse. The remains include an earthen motte mound, roughly circular, c.28m in diameter at the base and c.17m diameter at the top. The motte is steep-sided and has a flat top, which is c.2.4m high in the west and c.1.7m high in the east. Ploughing in a rough square around the mound has produced an angular boundary at its base, most marked on the south east where the sides are rather less steep. Although a ditch is no longer visible, material for the mound's construction will have been quarried from a surrounding ditch, which is now completely infilled. (Scheduling Report)

Gatehouse Comments

Has previously been described and scheduled as round barrow, now scheduled as motte. Presumably the site of a small sub-manor held for a knight's fee for which the motte was a mainly symbolic marker. The manor house presumably having moved at or before Butthouse was built in the earlier C17. However, it may be this mound, which as can be seen from the change in scheduling description is not unambigious, is not a motte at all. There was a deer park in King's Pyon, although the mound does lie outside its probably area so probably not a viewing platform. A windmill is recorded in the SMR 500m NW and the mound is described in a manner not unlike other windmill mounds.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSO442489
Latitude52.1360282897949
Longitude-2.81593990325928
Eastings344250
Northings248950
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 189
  • Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 45
  • Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 10
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 207
  • 1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 32
  • RCHME, 1934, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 3: north-west p. 88 No. 14 online transcription

Journals

  • 1967, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 2 p. 2
  • Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124