Amsbury Wood Enclosure, Coxheath

Has been described as a Rejected Timber Castle (Motte)

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains

NameAmsbury Wood Enclosure, Coxheath
Alternative NamesHunton
Historic CountryKent
Modern AuthorityKent
1974 AuthorityKent
Civil ParishCoxheath

Two contiguous rectangular enclosures occupying circa 2 hectares on a ridge top. It has been suggested that they are military earthworks of the C18-19th, but a mound overlying the corner of one of them is reminiscent of a post-mill mound. (Kent HER)

An unclassified earthwork consisting of a series of banks and ditches with a small mount in one corner. The entrenchments are 21ft at the widest and now poorly defined; the mount has an irregular excavation on the summit (VCH). The earthworks are two contiguous near-rectangular enclosures with feeble banks and ditches. They are clearly minor and comparatively recent, and may be connected with the military encampments on Cox Heath mentioned by Igglesden. The mound, at TQ 73435100, is large, flat-topped and circular, about 28.0m in diameter and 1.8m in height, with a large depression in the top. It is surrounded by a ditch with causeways on the east and west sides. The mound overlies and clearly post-dates the enclosure banks and is probably a mill-mound; it looks like one and the general area goes under the name of 'Windmill Bank'. (F1 AC 07.11.61). Centred TQ 7328508. These two, linked, bank and ditch earthworks each enclose c. 2 hectares of undulating ridge-top, now coppiced. They are in a fair condition with the banks up to 0.7m high externally and the ditches about 0.4m deep. The eastern enclosure is a later addition as evidenced by the join across the ditch to its neighbour, and in its turn it has been overlaid at the NE angle by a probable windmill mound. However, the time-span of the sequence is not possible to determine from observation alone, neither is the origin and purpose. If as seems likely the mound is the site of a post-mill then a late military origin for the enclosures can be ruled out (F2 MJF 19.03.86). (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

Small mound, in corner of large earthwork rectangular enclosure, rejected by King as millstead.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceTQ734510
Latitude51.2312202453613
Longitude0.482529997825623
Eastings573430
Northings151000
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 238 (reject)
  • Jessop, R.F., 1930, Archaeology of Kent p. 160
  • Igglesden, C., 1913, Saunter through Kent with Pen and Pencil Vol. 9 p. 55-6
  • Gould, I. Chalkley, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Kent Vol. 1 p. 437, 438-9 (plan) online copy