Castlefacts³

Bishopstrow Farm

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte)

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains

Name	Bishopstrow Farm
Alternative Names	Motte Field
Historic Country	Wiltshire
Modern Authority	Wiltshire
1974 Authority	Wiltshire
Civil Parish	Bishopstrow

Double ringwork and central motte seen on aerial photographs. Spur holloway marks entrance to north. Possible temporary anarchy-period castle. Trial trenched by R.W Smith, 1981 (Wilts SMR).

The small scale excavation in 1981 in the NW corner of the motte ditch produced 12th century pottery. However, the large amount of residual IA pottery suggests that the motte may be a short-term fortification sited within the extant earthworks of an IA domestic complex (Creighton). (PastScape)

Although partially damaged by cultivation, limited excavation has demonstrated the considerable archaeological potential of the Bishopstrow monument. Sites of this type are particularly rare on Salisbury Plain.

The monument includes an earthwork castle comprising a motte, a double ringwork and associated features immediately east of Bishopstrow Farm. A hollow-way extending to the north of the modern farm is identified as an entrance. The monument survives as earthworks although spread by cultivation. Small-scale excavation in 1981 of a pit cluster to the south of the motte and in the north-western section of the defences revealed pottery sherds of probable C12th date. It has been suggested that the castle was a short-lived fortification erected during the Anarchy. (Scheduling Report)

Gatehouse Comments

This is an area of many barrows, some of which have been misidentified as mottes. There is a possibility that this site, which does not seem to be a manorial centre, may be a barrow in an Iron Age enclosure with some incidental C12 finds. If occupied as a military base in the C12 then that occupation is likely to have been by a small band of loosely aligned armed men reusing an existing pre-historic earthwork as a secure base for their exploitation of local people and travellers on the Southampton-Bristol road.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)

879133

County Historic Environment Record

www.wiltshire.gov.uk/artsheritageandlibraries/museumhistoryheritage/wiltshireandswindonhistoricenvironmentrecord/wshermap.htm?a=d&id=14554

OS Map Grid Reference	ST901441
Latitude	51.1960296630859
Longitude	-2.14304995536804
Eastings	390100
Northings	144100