Monument record 4268/1/1 - Medieval moat (Morphed Aerial Archaeology Interpretation)

Earthwork: Non-destructive fieldwork

{2} In 1303-4 Thomas de Latimer had ‘licence to strengthen his manor house at Braybrook with a stone wall and to embattle it’ and soon afterwards had ‘the roof of his great chamber at Braybrooke of the timber of the Abbot and Convent of Pipewell’. These documents suggest that the existing moated castle site was constructed at this time. Certainly by 1329-30 there was ‘a capital messuage inclosed by water, with a close outside the gates’, while the ‘fishing around the inclosure’ was worth nothing. There are a number of later references to the castle, as in 1334-5 when the ‘houses within the moat’ are mentioned.

The castle itself lies in the centre of the site. It has been much damaged by recent agricultural activity and farm buildings. The remains suggest that it was little more than a simple square moated island, completely surrounded by a wide ditch. This is still largely undamaged on the east and north sides where it is nearly 2m deep, though on the west it is only a shallow depression less than 0.5m deep.

{4} Condition survey undertaken on site of Braybrooke castle. Many of the earthworks in good condition, but some parts being actively eroded and worn. Problems identified as stock, prolonged period of dry weather and presence of thorn trees and bushes. Major area of erosion on main fishponds - details given in report.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Photographs). SNN104822.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.11 site 1 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

<3> Cadman, G., 1995, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49968.

<4> Cadman, G., 1995, Braybrooke Castle and Fishponds: Condition Inspection, (checked) (Unpublished Report). SNN109255.

Record last edited

Feb 6 2014 11:42AM