Soulton Hall, 200M to the Holloway in Alignment with the South West of the Moated Site

Soulton, Parish of Wem, Shropshire Place Name outer edge is a rectangular area enclosed by its scarp on its N and E The place name, now Soulton, is Suletune in sides and a shallow ditch on the W 1086. There are a number of places across which runs into the moats N arm. England from Bedgordshire to Cumbria with Just to the west of this running from the first element of the name being Soul, e.g. the NW corner of the moat is a wide Souldrop (Beds) and Soulby (Cumbria). All in shallow linear depression which is their earliest forms were spelled Sule, a name wet and marshy and which may be a indicating a gully. possible feeder leat. A similar but much shorter ditch runs into the W The name, meaning place by a gully, is arm The scarp defined rectangular appropriate here given the landscape alongside area is probably an external Soulton Brook. enclosure. (M Watson FI 1981 SSA3679 - Field recording form: Moated Site Watson Michael D. 1981-Feb-05. Site Visit Form, 05/02/1981). The mound and associated moated site, Shropshire HER Ref 01015, was identified as a Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, High medieval ringwork in 1965 from aerial score as one of 133 Moated sites photographs, by one of the compilers of the (Horton Wendy B. 1990/ 1991. MPP Ordnance Survey. It has subsequently been Evaluation File.) identified as the site of an older manor house, 13th century. Scheduled with the formal gardens across the road in 2000. Relevant parts of The main HER entry reads: Scheduling description: Well preserved small rectangular moat sited on gently E sloping The monument includes the ground on the W bank of Soulton earthwork and buried remains of a Brook. There is no E side to the medieval moated site and a post- moat...the flooded brook may well medieval formal garden within two have formed this E arm. The S arm separate areas of protection. has been partly destroyed by the modern road (built on its outer The moated site is considered to be scarp). The N and W arms are intact the centre of the manor of Soulton. and average 1.7m deep and up to In the Domesday survey the manor 10m wide. At the S end of the W was recorded as belonging to st arm is the remains of a causewayed Michael's Chapel in Shrewsbury entrance c 3m wide... The very small Castle. Records dating to the second island measures c35m x 30m and is half of the 13th century indicate that raised 1m above the surrounding by that time the manor was being ground level, it also has a stepped leased to Robert Corbet. In the 16th profile. At its NW and its SW end century it had been bought by Sir corners are what appear to be small Rowland Hill, which probably led to rectangular raised building platforms the building of a new residence, between which runs a linear known as Soulton Hall, 200m to the holloway in alignment with the south west of the moated site. This causeway. This may represent the house was sizably enlarged in the original entrance flanked by? third quarter of the 17th century and gatetowers. Abutting onto the N arm is partly surrounded by a walled 1 garden. The hall and the 17th century and any wooden structures were left in situ garden walls are Listed Grade II* and while the manor and its attendant building are not included in the scheduling. developed around the present house & farm. The moated site is situated on the We did query the purpose of the raised western edge of the flood plain of rectangular top of the mound, and one theory Soulton Brook, at the base of a considered was whether the mound was re- gentle east facing slope. An oval used in the civil war of the 17th century to shaped moat, well preserved to the protect the crossing of the stream, a gun north and west (averaging 18m platform. On a related theme consideration wide), but less evident around the was given to the mound having been put up in rest of its circuit, surrounds a the 17th cent civil war mound with a gun rectangular island. The island is an platform on the top set at a angle with a point unusual construction, displaying a acting as a bastion towards the river crossing. well defined stepped profile on all We contacted an old friend, Dr Glenn Foard sides, which is believed to be the a Civil War Battlefield expert, who now lives result of its later use as part of the in Shropshire, and he looked at the site, his post-medieval formal garden. The response was: lower step averages 1.2m in height and the upper step is about O.8m Had a look at the Soulton mound. high. The upper portion raises the Looks to me like a garden feature height of the moated island above the rather than Civil War gun level of the surrounding ground to emplacement. They did create the west. The top of the island ‘mounts’ on which to place artillery measures approximately 18m east- but this was normally within the west by 22m north-south. On the defences of a fortified garrison. top there are a series of slight scarps, Maybe in a long siege involving which relate to the building or complete encircling with siegeworks buildings that once occupied the site. then the attackers might have Crossing the western moat arm are constructed mounts but I can’t think the slight remains of a causeway. off hand of an example. While some mounts will have been round – the A number of features are excluded classic example is the reworking of from the scheduling, these are: all the Towcester motte by Prince modern field boundaries, fences and Rupert in 43 - most artillery gates, the water trough and fodder platforms would however have container, the pump house and a followed the angular forms typical of disused section of water pipe, (above renaissance and later defences. So, ground and encased in brick and given the position of this mound, so concrete); the ground beneath all far from Wem, a place which I don’t these features is, however, included think was subject to a large scale in the scheduling (- Scheduled siege of the form requiring mounts, Monument notification: English and unless there was a fortified Heritage. 2000. Scheduling Papers outpost of unusual form at Soulton, (New Scheduling, 07/07/2000). then I doubt this is Civil War. But I 32307.) would not want to say 100%. If there were Civil War works of such magnitude at Soulton I would have The mound and its surrounding ditch is quite expected Johnathan Worton, who possible an anarchy motte, that is a smallish recently completed his PhD on the fortification raised to protect the ford Civil War in Shropshire, would have through the stream. There is little or no identified the site. I will copy him into evidence to suggest a manor house was raised this email so he can reply if he does upon the mound, although it does have a know of documentary evidence for raised rectangular top. A medieval manor fortification there. Sometimes house was self-sufficient as a farm and needed garrisons did have outposts but I attendant buildings, the hall of such a manor would be surprised by somewhere as house would have exceeded the size of the small as Wem having a major top of the mound. It is therefore suggested outpost, unlike the pattern one sees that if constructed in the 1100s the mound 2 at places like Oxford or Newark, but their use as some form of garden plan I could be wrong. cannot be excluded. That said, gardens of the Tudor through to the end of the 17th Johnathan Worton subsequently replied: century were usually formal, this includes the water features, e.g. the moat etc. at As much as I would like to add to the Lyvden New Beild in Northamptonshire. list of Shropshire's ECW There does not seem to be any indication monuments, I think I have to endorse of such a formal plan here. On the other Glenn's comments here on the side of the hall there are traces of what nature of the mound at Soulton. I appears to have been a more formal have not visited the site (although my garden layout. How or if the two relate is appetite is now whetted to do so) unclear. and so can only go by the HER report and Glenn's own site visit. River Crossing Given the location of Soulton, and The river crossing was probably a ford until the substantial nature of the hall, as it the late 17th or early 18th centuries. Such seems at the time of the First Civil fords usual had some form of surface to ease War, the place could have been the passage of traffic across the stream. The a likely site for a satellite garrison to paved area described as having been noted in Parliamentary Wem (or indeed, a the field next to the road and stream, could Royalist advance post threatening be such a surface put down before the bridge Wem from the east). and causeway were built, to ease the passage of traffic getting into the ford. However, in my research for the PhD (and resultant book) I came Leat near the Woods across no references at all to Soulton having been garrisoned by The notion that a second water course lay either side.

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