Cransley Motte
Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte)
There are earthwork remains
| Name | Cransley Motte |
| Alternative Names | Great Cransley Mound |
| Historic Country | Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough |
| Modern Authority | Northamptonshire |
| 1974 Authority | Northamptonshire |
| Civil Parish | Cransley |
A motte 16 feet high above the surrounding ditch, with a flat top 45 feet in diameter, in a plantation a 1/4 mile NW of the church at Cransley. A diagonal section has been cut from the mound. There is no trace of a bailey or of stonework. Described as a tumulus on OS 1", 1835 (VCH).
A small motte utilised as a landscaped feature within Cransley Wood (F1 JB 14-OCT-69). (PastScape)
Great Cransley Mound (3 3/4 miles W.S.W. of Kettering). — This small mound, surrounded by a ditch, stands within a plantation a quarter of a mile north-west from the church, 400 feet above sea level, and 100 feet above a stream which flows north-east half a mile east. It is shown on the one-inch Ordnance Survey (1835), and called a 'tumulus,' but was certainly a mote castle mound. As a castle mound it is small in circumference, like many others in Northamptonshire, being only 16 feet high above its ditch; but its situation near the church, and the comparatively large space nearly level on its summit (45 feet in diameter), mark it as having been erected for defensive purposes. The position has no great command, as there is higher land on the west, and the land on the north is higher than that on the south, as will be seen by the section. The story common to castle mounds all over England of a treasure hidden within the mound is current in the district, and a great diagonal section has been cut through (which has permanently injured the work) to seek for this treasure, or perhaps the mound was taken for a grave. There is now no trace of a court or of stonework. (VCH 1906)
Motte (?) (SP 82477670), in Cransley Wood, on Boulder Clay at 122 m. above OD. It consists of a mound 40 m. in diam., 3.5 m. high, and with a flat top 16 m. across. There is a well-marked surrounding ditch, only 1 m. deep except on the W. where it has been recut in modern times
A partially filled-in trench is still visible across the top of the mound, but there is no record of an excavation here. The site is perhaps a motte, placed to overlook and protect the village to the S. However it is possible that it is post-medieval in date and connected with landscaping. The present ditch is certainly too small and narrow for the ditch of a motte, but the existence of what may be part of an earlier ditch on the N.E. is perhaps significant. There is no trace of a bailey or of stonework. The mound is not shown on a map of the village of 1598 (NRO) though this may not be of significance. (RCHME)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SP824767 |
| Latitude | 52.3821411132813 |
| Longitude | -0.789780020713806 |
| Eastings | 482470 |
| Northings | 276700 |
