Melton Mowbray; The Mount

Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Motte), and also as a Questionable Masonry Castle

There are earthwork remains

NameMelton Mowbray; The Mount
Alternative NamesThe Mound
Historic CountryLeicestershire
Modern AuthorityLeicestershire
1974 AuthorityLeicestershire
Civil ParishMelton Mowbray

Medieval motte surviving as an earthwork probably reused later as a mill mound. Variously supposed in the past to be a tumulus, Civil War grave or modern garden feature. A motte castle approximately 30m in diameter and 3m high, with a flat top 12m in diameter. There is no evidence for a ditch. A documentary reference to a motte at Melton, dated 1364, says that it was granted to the hospital of St Lazarus at Burton Lazars and refers to cutting down trees on the mound. A reference to a mill at Mount Pleasant in 1827 suggests a later use for the mound. Some research from the later 1990s has called into question the validity of the site as a motte. (PastScape)

The mound here, though it was used as a windmill mound, may have originally been a castle motte. Parts of a bank and ditch system have been mapped, with a bank to the west of the mound. It may have been a small castle guarding Melton's southern entrance. Trial trenching on the former Police Station site around The Mount (2001) found no evidence of castle-related structures such as ditches. It would appear to have started life as a windmill rather than a castle? (Leicestershire and Rutland HER)

Gatehouse Comments

Cantor hints at a stone castle here. Creighton questions status of mound as castle and, indeed, most authorities who have seen this mound have not considered it to be a motte. The mound is situated on the other side of the river from the parish church and away from the area of settlement. I would not exclude the possibility that there was a castle at Melton Mowbray given it's status as a market town before Domesday but the Mount seems an unlikely site. A more probably site for the manor house of the Mowbray's (Molbrai), which, considering the status of the family, may well have been fortified, has been identified in King Street. Despite being scheduled as a motte Gatehouse has categorised this as a questionable site because of its lack of bailey and unlikely location.

- 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 ReferenceSK747188
Latitude52.7619400024414
Longitude-0.893140017986298
Eastings474770
Northings318840
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Knox, Richard, 2015, 'The medieval fortified sites of Leicestershire and Rutland' in Medieval Leicestershire: Recent research on the Medieval Archaeology of Leicester (Liecestershire Fieldworks 3) p. 123-42
  • Cantor, Leonard, 2003, The Scheduled Ancient Monument of Leicestershire and Rutland (Leicester: Kairos Press) p. 36
  • Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 41
  • Hartley, R.F., 1989, The Medieval Earthworks of Central Leicestershire (Leicester: Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service) p. 11
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 255
  • Moon, N., 1981, The Windmills o f Leicestershire and Rutland (Wymondham: Sycamore) p. 126, 198
  • Hunt, P.E., 1957, The Story of Melton Mowbray p. 63-4
  • Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  • Wall, C., 1907, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol. 1 p. 275 (as tumulus) online copy
  • Nichols, J., 1804, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire Vol. 2 p. 2

Journals

  • Speight, Sarah, 2008, 'Castles as Past Culture: Living with Castles in the Post-Medieval World' Cha^teau Gaillard Vol. 23 p. 385-94 (slight)
  • Creighton, O.H., 1997, 'Early Leicestershire Castles: Archaeology and Landscape History' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 71 p. 29 online copy
  • Liddle, P., 1989, 'Archaeology in Leicestershire and Rutland' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 63 p. 119 online copy
  • Cantor, Leonard, 1977-8, 'The Medieval Castles of Leicestershire' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 53 p. 39 online copy

Primary Sources

  • Bourne, T. and Marcombe, D.(eds), 1987, The Burton Lazars Cartulary: A Medieval Leicestershire Estate (University of Nottingham) p. 29

Other

  • Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 393 online copy
  • Allsop, J., 1988, Earthwork survey of the mound at Melton Mowbray (Unpublished document)