Chaddleworth, Woolley Farm
Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Ringwork), and also as a Questionable Fortified Manor House
There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains
| Name | Chaddleworth, Woolley Farm |
| Alternative Names | Mitchell Copse, Wooley Farm; Woolley Castle |
| Historic Country | Berkshire |
| Modern Authority | West Berkshire |
| 1974 Authority | Berkshire |
| Civil Parish | Chaddleworth |
Probable Medieval ring work visible as a cropmark, measuring 46m in diameter and mapped from aerial photographs. A collection of C12 pottery has been found on the site. (PastScape)
A small motte and banks noticed on a property near Fawley. (Kaines-Thomas, 1960) Mr. Kaines-Thomas pointed out Mitchell Copse, Chaddleworth as being the area in which the earthwork was found. It is at SU40727957 and consists of a ringwork formed by a bank with an outer ditch. There is no central mound and no causeway or obvious entrance way. It is not a motte and its inherent weakness suggests that it was of little if any defensive value. A number of probably early C12 sherds (identified by Reading Museum) were found on the surface. The work overlooks the site of Woolley D.M.V. and is probably of medieval origin although its purpose is obscure. (PastScape–ref. field investigators comment, 1964)
Presumably a manorial centre of some sort to the DMV. The manor is recorded as being in the hands of William Peverel in the Domesday Book, but by a family called Forester by the early C13. Woolley House, a late C17 stately home lies 400m NE in a deer park. This is presumably a successor building. Probably not a castle, but a defended manor house of some status.
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SU407795 |
| Latitude | 51.5135498046875 |
| Longitude | -1.41454005241394 |
| Eastings | 440720 |
| Northings | 179560 |
