Monument record 727/3 - Bury Mount

Mound, probably constructed as a Motte in the late 11th or 12th century. Altered to become a gun platform in 1643. Described as a garden in 1848. The mound is 22 feet in height and 102 feet in diameter, and was originally surrounded by a wet ditch. Scheduled.

{1} Article on preserving view of Bury Mount.

{2} Bury Mount is in very poor condition and is in a state of continuing erosion and degradation due to long term neglect. The monument is overgrown in places by unchecked scrub growth and there are a number of dead, dangerous and unmanaged trees. Ongoing erosion of the earthwork is evident through a number of agencies. There is no interpretation and little local knowledge of the monument. There is poor flora cover and the site is, in fact, of poor wildlife value. There is evidence of widespread domestic, industrial and agricultural rubbish tipping and the monument is clearly a health and safety hazard in places.

{3} A motte and bailey castle was built on the north-eastern side of Towcester, near to the junction of Watling Street and the new road laid out between the burhs of Oxford and Northampton, a site now known as Bury Mount. The precise date for its construction is not known but a date soon after the Conquest, is most likely. Its purpose would have been to serve as administrative centre of the royal estate and to control the river crossing and the two important routes of communication.
The close relationship of the motte to the church raises the possibility that the castle may have been deliberately built on the site of an Anglo-Saxon royal or comital Court. Woodfield suggests that the motte lies over, or near, the east gate through the Roman defences. There is no evidence that the castle was ever enlarged or strengthened, and it has been suggested that it fulfilled its defensive function for only a century or so, before slowly falling into disrepair. The buildings within the southern bailey of the castle nevertheless continued to function as the manorial centre throughout the medieval period. In the 14th century the site of the manor is described as containing a hall with a chamber, a kitchen with a small stable annexe and ancillary buildings. Within the manor was a moat (mota), and within the moat a motte (mons turr). By the late 15th century the mottehyll was described as in decay .
(Ref 3.1.2.1) A motte and bailey castle was built on the north-eastern side of Towcester on a site which rises gently from the River Tove. The date of its construction is not known but it is thought to be either the later 11th century or the early 12th century. This would make it the work of the Crown. Its purpose would have been to serve as administrative centre of the royal estate and to control the Northampton to Oxford road.
The castle comprised a substantial earth mound, or motte, with an outer court or bailey to the south, enclosed by a moat. (Ref 3.1.2.1) A second bailey possibly lay to the north of the motte where a large square shaped plot of land was owned in the 19th century by the manorial lord. The existence of a bailey in this area may explain the reduction in the length of the tenement plots fronting Watling Street in this part of the town. However, limited excavation found little evidence for medieval activity in this area. The moat has now been backfilled and only the earthen motte remains, albeit much reduced from its original height .
In 1609 the Berry Mounte Hille was among the pieces of land rented by Michael Weste.
(Ref 3.2)In November 1643 the defensive works ordered by Prince Rupert involved the levelling of the mount for use as a gun emplacement. The installation of gun platforms for artillery, including the modification of the castle mound to form a ‘mount’. There were some 10,000 troops garrisoned in an around the town for a short period that winter. The garrison was never besieged but was abandoned in early 1644 with the progressive withdrawal of troops to other campaigns and following the fall of the nearby minor garrison of Grafton Regis on the 25th December.
The majority of the later changes were probably undertaken in order to develop it in the 18th or 19th century as a landscape or garden feature.
(Ref 3.1.2.1)A rental of 1720 named William Clarke as tenant of a messuage, garden and orchard called Berrymount Hill, together with land in the fields. It was said to have been landscaped in the 18th century. In 1791 Bridges gave the dimensions as 102 feet in diameter and 24 feet in height, and described it as surrounded by a much narrowed moat supplied with water from the mill leat.
In the early 19th century a building is said to have been built on the side of the motte.

{6} Map of the Estates of the Earl of Pomfret dated early C19 shows Bury Mount surrounded by a water course connected to the mill leat. There is apparently a small island in the ditch on the south east side and an entrance on the south west.

{10} Motte (SP 69344881) known as Bury Mount. Earthwork circular mound 65-75m diameter, slight lower slopes and up to 3m high narrow ledge backed by near vertical face of gravel and clay. Unevenly flat-topped. Traces of the surrounding ditch survive on the north and south east, but only their north east ends are now water-filled.

Nothing is known of its history but it was apparently constructed in the late 11th to 12th century as the centre of a royal estate and lay adjacent to the medieval course of the road to Northampton. Alterations, apparently to serve as a gun platform, are recorded during the Civil War when Prince Rupert refortified the town in 1643. It is described as being 'surrounded by a motte [sic] which is supplied with water from the brook' in the early 18th century, and a surrounding ditch is shown on maps of 1843 {34} and 1848-55 {31 & 5} when the site was described as a Garden.
The surviving earthwork has an unusual profile, with gentle lower slopes surmounted by a near vertical face surrounding a level summit. The shape may be the result either of defensive improvements in 1643 or later gardening activity. A plan of 1848-55 shows the top of the motte as circular with 2 buildings set into the south side of it with a surrounding ditch of 4 almost straight lengths.

{11} Archaeological excavation of Bury Mount was undertaken prior to a planned regeneration programme. The earliest phase was a stone building constructed following the Norman Conquest which was replaced by a Norman motte in the 12th century. The construction of the motte comprised the creation of a ring of embanked earth with further deposits tipped into the ring. The motte was disused by the late medieval period and remained so until the Civil War.
The south side of Bury Mound was cut back: there are three possible reasons for this. It could have been to create a gun emplacement with a sloped glacis below or was similarly altered to slight it after the Civil War to deter re-use. It could have been done after the Civil War for gravel extraction for construction. According to map evidence, a single cottage was built on the southern side of Bury Mount during the mid-19th century, c.1844-55. Initially the cottage has an ancilliary building, which had been replaced by a second cottage by 1884. The earlier of the cottages collapsed c.1950s and the second was demolished fter a fire in the late 1980s.

{14} "It is recorded that Edward the Elder ordered the defences of Towcester to be strengthened in 918, when the town was threatened by the Danes. Bury Mount, a mound formed of earth and gravel, is 22' in height, 102' in diameter, originally surrounded by a wet ditch. It overlooks the River Tove, and the E side of the town, controlling the old road to Northampton which crossed the river by a ford close at hand. It is a typical example of a post-conquest Motte or mound, the earlier fortifications (the whole perimeter defences of Towcester?) forming the bailey or outer enclosure. The summit has unfortunately been flattened by landscape gardening, and it is not possible to state whether it was surmounted by stone or timber defences."

{17} Presents historical/documentary overview of Bury Mount.

{18} The motte has been cleared of trees and vegetation, heavily scarped and shaped with a new spiral ramped walkway to the top and a new footbridge over the River Tove to the meadows on the east.

{19} It is most likely that the mound was created during the Anarchy period. In 1392, it was described as a mound tower within a moat, and was probably similar to the mound at South Mimms. In 1643-4, Towcester was refortified, and the mound used to mount two cannon.

{21} The motte was constructed by forming a base of a ring of embanked sandy clay and gravel from the motte ditch and the surrounding area. Further deposits were tipped onto the ring, raising its height and spreading down into the centre, where the deposits became thicker to fill the cone-shaped central hollow.

{26} Refers to an arched passage 15yds long on Bury Mount

{27}Bury Mount is a substantial earthen mound which is believed to have been constructed in the late 11th or 12th century AD as the Motte of a Motte and Bailey castle. It was disused by the 14th century, used as a garden in the early 17th century, functioned as a gun emplacement during the English civil war and by c.1720 it had been planted for ornament effect to form an eye-catcher from Easton Neston Park.Views of and from Bury Mount are of great historical importance to the setting of the Easton Neston Park. Planting c.1720 shown on a,"view from the park." (Bereford, 1993, 3 15-16).

{30} (SP 69344881) Bury Mount (LB)

{32} The edge of the motte ditch was exposed at one corner of the trench which exposed the Roman remains, but the amount available precluded further investigation.
The geotechnical test pit at the edge of the motte slump confirmed the presence of ditch fills.
The discovery of the motte ditch inner edge in the trenching has enabled the entire 360 degrees of its inner circumference to now be traced with a degree of certainty, a process which began with the coring of radial boreholes in 2006. While the outer edge remains known over perhaps 270 degrees, these major buried earthwork feature has now been located and characterised with the minimum of physical intervention. The works of 2007 also showed this to be a feature with environmental potential since the lower fills are waterlogged. No medieval features were exposed anywhere on the motte, except for the construction layers of the motte itself which were briefly exposed at a number of locations, chiefly in the trench which was cut on the west side to rebuild the retaining wall, and where the angle of ascent of a new helical path clashed with the irregular nature of the surviving core. The work produced only a few sherds of residual Roman pottery.

{34} Surrounded by mote.

{35} Plans.

{40} See annotated 25" survey.

{41} Listed by Cathcart King.

{42} Archaeological evaluation was undertaken in advance of the Moat Lane Regeneration project. Within Trench 16 was a substantial ditch, possibly the former moat, aligned roughly north-west to south-west, and appearing to follow the curve at the base of Bury Mount. Its profile could not determined with any accuracy, but it was probably more than 6m wide and 2.5m deep. Flooding prevented excavation to its lowest fills but sondage revealed a 0.6m thick waterlogged deposit of limestone rubble in an organic black silt matrix. This was overlain by a layer containing dumped leather waste from shoe manufacturing along with domestic rubbish, including pottery, of the C19th.

{43} Archaeological evaluation undertaken in 1984 to the north-west of the motte.

<1> 1995, History is Unearthed, 10/2/97 (checked) (Newspaper cuttings). SNN40437.

<2> Shotliff, D & Steadman, S, 1999, Bury Mount, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Management Survey, (checked) (Report). SNN63214.

<3> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 1.0, 3.1.2.1 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103132.

<4> Serjeantson R.M.; Ryland W. (Editors), 1906, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.408 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100369.

<5> Poor Law Union, 1855, Towcester Poor Law Union Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN105243.

<6> COTSWOLD ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST, 1992, Towcester Retail Development, Northamptonshire, Stage 1: Archaeological Assessment, (checked) (Draft). SNN70046.

<7> Woodfield P., 1992, Towcester Retail Development: Historic Landscape Assessment, (checked) (Full Report). SNN46827.

<8> Lanning K.; Pearson V.; Walker D., 1995, Castles in Northamptonshire: A Resource Pack for Teachers, (unchecked) (Educational Resource Pack). SNN75536.

<9> Kenyon J.R., 2008, Castles, Town Defences and Artillery Fortifications in the United Kingdom and Ireland: A Bibliography 1945 - 2006, (unchecked) (Bibliography). SNN106309.

<10> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.158/Site 8 (checked) (Series). SNN77382.

<11> Brown, J. and Soden, I., 2008, Bury Mount: A Norman Motte and Bailey Castle in Towcester, 35/147-150 (checked) (Article). SNN106435.

<12> NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY, 2008, Bury Mount, Towcester, (unchecked) (Leaflet). SNN106371.

<13> Towcester & District Local History Society, 2006, Bury Mount Castle, Towcester, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Leaflet). SNN106327.

<14> 1953, The Archaeological Journal (110), 212 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN59424.

<15> Beresford C., 1993, Easton Neston, Northamptonshire: Historical Assessment of the Park, (part checked) (Full Report). SNN59608.

<16> Beresford C., 1992, SMR Report form, (part checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN107415.

<17> Brown J.; Soden I., 2007, Excavation of a Motte and Bailey Castle at Bury Mount, Towcester, Northamptonshire July - September 2007, p.12-14 (checked) (Report). SNN107411.

<18> Cadman G., 2010, Towcester, Bury Mount, (checked) (Photographic prints (COL)). SNN107169.

<19> Guy, N., 2008, The Castle Studies Group Journal (21), p. 114-5 (Journal). SNN107645.

<20> Horne B. (Editor), 2008, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter (38), p.44 (checked) (Journal). SNN106282.

<21> Guy, N., 2011, The Castle Studies Group Journal (24), (checked) (Journal). SNN107541.

<22> Society for Medieval Archaeology, 2000, Medieval Archaeology (44), p.297 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN107452.

<23> OS 25 INCH MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN12153.

<24> Petrie, J, 2019, Mottes and 'Ringworks', Wednesday 10th April 2019 (Gazetteer). SNN111445.

<25> SUPPLEMENTARY FILE, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN51739.

<26> 1824, PIGOT'S DIRECTORY, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN47598.

<27> Kidd S., 1993, Towcester Retail Development, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Planning Assessment, (checked) (Report). SNN40438.

<28> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP64NE19 (checked) (Index). SNN443.

<29> Woodfield C., UNPUBLISHED REPORT, (unchecked) (Report). SNN57307.

<30> 1955, OS 6 INCH MAP (Map). SNN12151.

<31> 1848, Estate Map (Towcester), (unchecked) (Map). SNN59502.

<32> Soden I., 2010, An Archaeological Watching Brief at Bury Mount, Towcester, Northamptonshire, 2008-2010, p.6-7+9 (checked) (Report). SNN107910.

<33> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<34> 1843, Towcester Tithe Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN12156.

<35> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.272 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<36> CAMDEN SOCIETY, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN18342.

<37> SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF ROMAN STUDIES, 1970-2006, Britannia, (unchecked) (Journal). SNN70857.

<38> Baker G., 1822-36, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Book). SNN10400.

<39> 1975, CORRESPONDENCE, (unchecked) (Correspondence). SNN57267.

<40> Baird, J., 1970, Field investigators comments, F1 JB 29-JAN-70 (Notes). SNN110341.

<41> Cathcart King, D J, 1983, Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands, Vol 2, p. 318 (Book). SNN112899.

<42> Carlyle S., 2012, Moat Lane Regeneration, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, p.19-20 (checked) (Report). SNN109163.

<43> Woodfield C., 1992, The Defences of Towcester, Northamptonshire, p. 13-66 (Site D Bury Mount by Audouy, M) (Article). SNN60159.

<44> Undated, Externally held archive reference, PLAN OF CASTLE MOUND.ERECTED C.909 AD.SEE ARCH J/110/1953 (Historic England Archive: P30235) (Archive). SNN113573.

Record last edited

Sep 12 2024 11:36AM