Corsham

Has been described as a Rejected Timber Castle (Motte)

There are earthwork remains

NameCorsham
Alternative NamesHartham Park; Biddlestone
Historic CountryWiltshire
Modern AuthorityWiltshire
1974 AuthorityWiltshire
Civil ParishCorsham

A high mound, probably a medieval castle mound. A water tower stands on top amidst much worked oolite. There are no signs of a bailey or moat (Lindley). Grinsell (VCH) lists this as probably a castle mound, 30 paces in diameter and 10 ft high. (A typographical error in the VCH gives the NGR of this feature for Bushy Barron, Biddestone, ST 87 SE 1). (Lindley; VCH).

The feature is situated in a beech plantation on level ground.

It is described as a tumulus in 1828 (1st edn OS) and in 1837 (Tithe map) was unenclosed and part of Great Rookery field.

The mound, composed of earth and oolite rubble, is 25.0m in diameter at the base, 9.0m across the flat top and 3.4m high, with no trace of a perimeter ditch. A stone and earth ramp running up the Southern side is possibly for access to a massive late 19th or early 20th century water tank set upon cast iron pillars over a bore hole through the mound.

It could be a barrow, a small castle mount, or a medieval mill mound, when the ramp could have been part of the original structure (Field Investigators Comments-F1 NVQ 11-MAY-76).

Dismissed as a motte by Cathcart King who considers it to be the base for a gazebo, there being a mound with gazebo nearby (King). (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

Hartman may be the site of a DMV and was the site of a medieval manor, the manor house probably being where the Park House stands, so not an entirely unfeasible general location for a castle although clearly this mound is highly questionable as a motte. Is probably the wrong side of Hartman Park House to be a prospect mound (the home farm being in the way) and Gatehouse suspects was a windmill mound. Can be safely rejected as a castle mound on the bases of form (no surrounding ditch or bailey) and location (not the site of a manorial centre).

- 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 ReferenceST857724
Latitude51.4502296447754
Longitude-2.20601010322571
Eastings385780
Northings172400
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 502 (reject)
  • Rahtz, P.A. (ed), 1969, 'Norman Castle' in Medieval Sites in the Mendips, Cotswold, Wye Valley and Bristol Region (Bristol Archaeological Research Group Field Guide 3) p. 17
  • Pugh, R.B. and Crittall, Elizabeth (ed), 1957, VCH Wiltshire Vol. 1 Part 1 p. 169

Journals

  • Creighton, O.H., 2000, 'Early Castles in the Medieval Landscape of Wiltshire' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 93 p. 115 (reject) online copy
  • Lindley, E.S., 1958, Kingswood Abbey and Wortley, Addenda et Corrigenda' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 77 p. 158 online copy