Seymour's Mount, Steppingley

Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Ringwork)

There are earthwork remains

NameSeymour's Mount, Steppingley
Alternative NamesSeymour's Clump
Historic CountryBedfordshire
Modern AuthorityBedfordshire
1974 AuthorityBedfordshire
Civil ParishSteppingley

An earthwork forming a low bank around a roughly circular area. On a west-facing slope with an apparent entrance on the downslope side. It has been suggested as a possible ringwork but may be associated with a rabbit warren: the adjacent farm is called Warren Farm. (Bedfordshire HER)

Ring-work of possibly Anglo-Danish date called Seymour's Mount near Steppingley. It lies on the extreme end of a short west-facing spur, cut off by a short water-filled moat. On the top of the spur a flat circular area 110 feet in diameter has been dug out of the hill, with a very low bank round the rim. (PastScape)

This is an area about 30m in diameter with a very low, surrounding embankment seemingly created from the earth within. There is no apparent external ditch. It is on a spur of a slight hill slope: its entrance on the downhill slope on the west is discernible. A short water filled moat cuts off the spur from the main hill mass on the east. Was this a ringwork? It has not appeared in any previous Gazetteer. (Petre 2012)

Gatehouse Comments

Apart from the adjacent farm fairly isolated, the parish church being 1km away. Use as a rabbit warren seems likely but that would not exclude it being a ringwork. Indeed reusing existing old embanked enclosures for warrens make great sense. This could equally apply to pre-Conquest embanked enclosures such as Iron Age farmsteads. Dateable finds may help with identification but Gatehouse feels the location makes a medieval ringwork fairly unlikely. It may well be it has not previously appeared in gazetteer's of castles not because it was unknown but because it does not have the strength and quality of a Norman ringwork.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceTL001351
Latitude52.0049018859863
Longitude-0.54338002204895
Eastings500100
Northings235100
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Petre, James Scott, 2012, The Castles of Bedfordshire (Lavenham: Lavenham Press for Shaun Tyas) p. 77
  • Dyer, James, 1972, 'Earthworks of the Danelaw Frontier' in P.J. Fowler (ed), Archaeology and the landscape: essays for L. V. Grinsell p. 233-4, 235