Alderton - super-ringwork; suspect(ed) motte

Alderton - super-ringwork & suspect(ed) motte James Petre

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ALDERTON (Northamptonshire) Much work on the ‘ringwork’ has been super-ringwork; suspect(ed) motte carried out by local people including CSG James Petre member Brian Giggins, but especially John Kliene who lives in the village. He has ‘Ringworks’ and mottes are not always easy written both on it and on the lost, later, to differentiate. Indeed it is arguable that it nearby manor house. In its extensive garden serves no purpose to try. Did the Normans who is a mound which might be a low motte or built them draw any distinction? Certainly they second ‘ringwork’.3 I am indebted to John do not seem to have had a specific word for a for giving me access to these unpublished ‘ringwork’ unlike their word for a motte - mota works and also the archaeological reports on (Latin) or la mote/motte (French). Even now, the main site which occurred 2000–2012. in this age when we aim to categorise and label, it is not always straight-forward to ALDERTON ‘ringwork’ [The Mount] distinguish between them. Where is the line Descriptive overview drawn? ‘Ringwork’ castles could have a The main site in Alderton is the ‘ringwork’, dominant structure – a principal building known simply as ‘The Mount’, lying on the which the chief occupied or used as his head- north-east side of the village.4 The quarters; that structure could be placed on a earthwork is a roughly triangular area only platform enhancing its eminence, though not about one meter higher than the surrounding so remarkably that we would label it a tower land, but a substantial ditch, up to 5m deep on a motte. Equally, some mottes could be so in places, surrounds it. A well-marked inner puny, at least as seen today, as to barely bank or rampart, which varies in height from warrant that name. Some mottes may have 1m to 1.5m above the interior, encloses the started life as ‘ringworks’ which were raised area inside the ditch. The line of the strengthened causing contraction and infilling; ditch along the south-west side of the site some ‘ringworks’ were later superseded by has been filled in and several houses built neighbouring mottes but conversely the over it. The ditch is depicted on a map of opposite seems true as well.1 In short, it is hard 1726, where the ditch is shown filled with and perhaps unwise to draw lines at all. water and the area is called ‘Castle Mound’.5 This caveat made, it is interesting to look at History areas where there are clusters of ‘ringworks’. One such group is in south-west Northamp- William the Conqueror assigned the manor tonshire. The most famous in this group must of Alderton to his half-brother, Robert, be Sulgrave owing to the well-known archae- Count of Mortain. He held ninety-nine ological investigations which were carried out manors in Northants among his total of 793. there some half a century ago.2 Yet the No castle is mentioned in Domesday (1086), ‘ringwork’ at neighbouring Alderton is very where Robert is recorded as holding two much more impressive. Indeed it is by far the estates in Alderton. An un-named thegn held most substantial of the whole group. This one hide from Robert, and Robert himself century it has been extensively explored – held two hides and half a virgate in both in terms of its history and archaeology, demesne.6 Though the count had but not all the available data is easily accessed. considerable lands in Northamptonshire, he As a result, Alderton is at once important yet was not much interested in the county and remains relatively unappreciated. does not appear to have established a caput

THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE NO CASTLE 29: 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 33: 2019-20 158 Alderton - super-ringwork; suspect(ed) motte there, choosing rather to concentrate his Combemartin (d. 1318); it is his efforts in south-western England and in the impressive wooden tomb which lies in Rape of Pevensey in Sussex. He left the Alderton church. William’s three administration of his estates in daughters, who each married three times, Northamptonshire almost entirely to his all had a share of the inheritance but none vassals.7 It is then unlikely that Robert of showed any signs of residing in the castle. Mortain would have established a castle at One of the daughters, Joan, took as her Alderton. second husband, Sir John de Wolverton, the village of Wolverton itself lying not During the Anarchy (1139-54) the manor far away and where the motte beside the was held by William Warenne, 3rd earl of church may still be seen. A hinged, horse Surrey, a supporter of Stephen. It may be harness buckle decorated with the he who built the castle. The first historical Wolverton coat of arms was found by record of a castle is said to be in a Time Team in the entrance trench in front document of 1170 in the Bodleian which of the castle. Either Sir John or one of his now cannot be traced.8 The next - and retainers appears to have dropped this secured - documentary reference to a castle when visiting the castle. Another of the at Alderton is in Gervase of Canterbury’s daughters, Alice, took as her third Mappa Mundi, which dates to sometime husband John de Hastings, earl of around 1200.9 Pembroke. Her Inquisition post mortem About 1215, castle and manor passed from (IPM) of 1364/5 mentions that Alderton the earls of Surrey to William de manor then contained ‘certain ruined Bruere/Briwere, Bishop of Exeter, held by structures’. It has been posited that these the service of one knight’s fee. William died refer to the castle, reflecting that by then, in 1226. It then passed to his son who died it had passed out of use.12 in 1231, and then on to the son’s five sisters. Historically then, the available evidence In 1245 the manor of Alderton was held by regarding the castle as distinct from the Sir James Savage who in turn leased it out. manor, is meagre. Lowerre found it diffi- In 1250 James’s son, Thomas, sold the cult to reach a satisfactory conclusion as Savages’ interests in Alderton on to Pagan to its beginning. He considered that the de Chaworth who eventually bought out the distinct lack of interest which Robert, interests of the Savages’ lessee.10 A Count of Mortain had for Northampton- quitclaim of 1269 specifically mentions the shire suggested that he was not responsi- castle.11 The Chaworths were based ble for raising the Mount. Lowerre elsewhere so it is unlikely they did much conceded that it is theoretically possible with the castle, it then functioning as little that after Robert’s death in 1095, his son more than a manorial administrative centre. William could have decided to fortify Pagan was an officer in Edward I’s Alderton, thus making Alderton a late- armies and died in 1278 fighting the eleventh-century castle, but this, too, he Welsh. He was succeeded by his brother felt was highly unlikely. The lack of any Patrick (d. 1282), then the latter’s evidence to suggest that Alderton was daughter, Maud, who married Henry, later built before 1100 led Lowerre to believe 3rd earl of Lancaster. In 1306, they that Alderton was rather first built in the conveyed Alderton to Sir William de twelfth century.13

THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNALTHE NO CASTLE 29: 2015-16 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 33: 2019-20 159 Alderton - super-ringwork; suspect(ed) motte Archaeology There have been four campaigns of archaeology. Time Team made one of its flying visits to the site in 2000 and opened five trenches.14 Then in 2009 and 2010, Northamptonshire Archaeol- ogy worked on the site, over rather longer periods, partly reopening one of Time Team’s trenches, but generally concentrating their efforts on the inte- rior of the castle.15 Finally in 2012, ground penetrating radar (GPR) was employed, again on the interior of the castle, establishing what was to be discerned up to the range of the equip- ment of 1.8m below the surface.16 Excavation on the ‘Mount’ July 2010.© Neil Guy. The reports of these four campaigns are summarised in John Kliene’s unfinished work on the site, as he left it in 2014. Kliene Radio-carbon analysis of a timber in the ditch and other locals also undertook some field- provided a date range of 1020-1270; pottery walking in the surrounding areas. within the rampart and from the ‘platform’ Amalgamating these archaeological reports, within the castle yielded dates of early-mid- what we have is as follows:- twelfth century and finally demolition rubble suggested abandonment of the site by the This area, overlooking the River Tove, mid-fourteenth century. The deduction is that shows human activity as far back as the castle was an Anarchy adulterine work and Neolithic times. Pottery from the Iron Age so then could be consistent with the has also been found, Kliene commenting fragmentary history set out above. that perhaps this is suggestive of an Iron Age fort. Pottery and coin finds attest Much of the archaeological effort focused human activity in Romano-British, then on the ‘platform’. This was found to carry a Anglo-Saxon times – Alderton was on the stone building. The painted glass and worked frontier between the Saxon kingdoms to the nature of the stone implied a high-status south and the Danelaw to the north. The building, perhaps a chapel or structure asymmetrical shape of the castle, being including a chapel. Other finds included a something of a quadrant of a larger circle, small medieval key and the tip of the sheath and hence unusual for a ringwork castle, of a dagger. Medieval roof tiles in this area has led to another suggestion that the castle were suggestive of either this building or was a quarter slice of a defended Anglo- another substantial one adjacent. Nearby Saxon burgh. The amount of pre-Norman foundation walls were located, consisting of finds in the castle itself is not, however, limestone courses, one at least with a plinth. extensive and compares poorly with, for There had been much robbing of these example, neighbouring Sulgrave where foundation walls. Finally the discovery of Davison (1977) found ample evidence of a limestone blocks implied that the original preceding manorial complex.17 entrance was on the south-west side.

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Victor Ambrus’s reconstruction of Alderton ringwork as it may have looked in the mid 12th century.© Victor Ambrus. View from the south.

N

Key: 1. Modern entrance steps. 2. Ditch 3. Rampart 4. Interior 5. Platform 6. Original entrance on the SW now apparent between two small mounds.

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TOP: Lidar image: https://houseprices.io/lab/lidar/map?ref=SP73954688. The suspected motte is ringed, 200m to the west of the tree-studded triangular ringwork. BELOW: Google Earth Pro. View from the south. Motte ringed. Inset: Aerial view from the west.

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ABOVE:: Alderton ringwork: Modern wooden stair entrance (Key 1). BELOW: Time Team’s interpretation of the wooden palisade (now removed). Both images courtesy of J Kliene.

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Top: Alderton Mount: Excavated plinth with rubble footing. Below: Alderton Mount: Rubble scatter on building platform (2010). Area marked:5. Both images courtesy of Neil Guy.

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Ordnance Survey 6”map of Alderton, Buckinghamshire IV. SW, Revised: 1898 to 1899, Published: 1900. Reproduced and © National Library of Scotland.

ALDERTON motte? Historic Monuments (RCHM) calls this Is there another ‘castle’ in Alderton? The mound a ‘prospect mount’, it is called a LIDAR image shows a circular mound with motte on the Ordnance Survey (OS). He at least a partial ditch around it, to the west continues that all the historians and of the ‘ringwork’. The VCH of 2002 noted archaeologists who have visited the mound that this mound is presumed to be the ‘moat’ agree that it is not a ‘prospect mount’, which mentioned in a document of 1650 were usually higher, and that in particular, (E317/Northants/15, ff. 2-4) and described it Stewart Ainsworth, who saw it in 2000, as a ‘prospect mount’. The Victoria County observed that the summit of the mound was History (VCH) added a footnote, however, big enough to support a structure as large as referring to a work of 2001 by John Kliene, Clifford’s Tower in York. That year (2000) 18 that archaeology may indicate a motte. Time Team carried out a geophysics survey Kliene has written more extensively on the and discerned extensive stone rubble across history and archaeology of this area since the mound’s top. There is a causeway 2001 in an unpublished booklet of 2005.19 crossing the ditch which aligns roughly with This work centres on the mansion house built the axis of Church Street – the early by William Gorges in 1582 on the site of the medieval centre of Alderton. Kliene medieval manor house. The Elizabethan concludes that the best interpretation of the mansion itself was in turn lost many years mound is that it is a defended manor house, ago, and was superseded by a series of stone ‘possibly Anglo- Saxon’. Could it be though farm buildings which in the 1980s were that what we have here is another Norman turned into houses. One of these houses is work and if so what could be the relationship now owned by Kliene and in fact his garden with the neighbouring, sizable ‘ringwork’ includes this mound feature. He comments immediately to its east? The mound is now that though the Royal Commission on a scheduled ancient monument.

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Top: Alderton motte (suspected). View from the south-west. Below:The (suspected) motte. View from the west. Both images reproduced courtesy of J. Kliene.

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Top: Aerial view of Alderton motte from the west, 1976, courtesy of J Kliene. Below: Kliene’s suggested reconstruction of William Gorges’s manor house as it may have appeared around 1600. The mound and fish ponds have become garden water features. View form the south. © J. Kliene

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Notes 431. For the date of the Mappa Mundi, see vol. 1 D. J. C King and L. Alcock, ‘Ringworks of I, pp. xxviii-xxix. England and Wales’, Château Gaillard III, ed. A. J. Taylor, (London and Chichester: 10 Victoria County History [VCH], A History of Phillimore, 1969) pp. 90-127. the County of Northampton, vol. V, ed. P. Riden (University of London, 2002), p. 43; 2 B. K. Davison, ‘Excavations at Sulgrave, Kliene, The Mount, p. 11. Northamptonshire, 1960-76; an interim report’, The Archaeological Journal, Vol. 134, 11 Lowerre, Placing Castles, p. 240 (1977), pp. 105-114. Later reprinted in, Five Castle Excavations, Reports on the Institute’s 12 Kliene, The Mount, pp. 12-13. Research Project into the Origins of the Castle in England, Royal Archaeological Institute, 13 Lowerre, Placing Castles, p. 240 (1978), pp. 105-114. 14 An Archaeological Investigation at The Mount, 3 J.S. Kliene, The Mount, History and Alderton, Northamptonshire, Time Team Archaeology (2014); J. Kliene, Gorges Report ALD 00, Channel Four television, Mansion House. The Lost Elizabethan Manor Katie Hirst, 2006 House of Alderton, Northamptonshire (2005). Both these works remain unfinished and 15 Archaeological Excavation at The Mount, unpublished. Alderton, Northamptonshire, July-August 2009, Northamptonshire Archaeology, Report 4 D. J. C King, Castellarium Anglicanum (New 09/133, Tim Upson-Smith, 2009; York, London and Nendeln: Kraus, 1983), vol. Archaeological Excavation at The Mount, II, p. 315 and note 1. Alderton, Northamptonshire, July-August 2010, Northamptonshire Archaeology, Report 5 Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments 10/155, Tim Upson-Smith, 2010. of England, [RCHME], An Inventory of the Historic Monuments in the County of 16 Ground Probing Radar Survey of The Mount, Northamptonshire, vol., IV, Archaeological Alderton, Subsurface Geotechnical, Report Sites in South-West Northamptonshire No. 542, 2012. (London: HMSO, 1982), pp. 61-2 and plate 3.

17 6 Great Domesday Book, Facsimile ed., 223, Davison, ‘Excavations at Sulgrave; Kliene, 224, eds. A. Williams and R. W. H. Erskine The Mount, pp. 6-8, 20. (London, 1986-91). 18 VCH, Northampton, vol. V, p. 45, citing J.S. 7 A. Lowerre, Placing Castles in the Conquest. Kliene, The manor house of Alderton. A short Landscape, Lordship and Local Politics in the history with illustrations, (2001). South- Eastern Midlands, 1066-1100, BAR British Series 385 (Oxford, 2005), p. 240, 19 Kliene, J., Gorges Mansion House. See esp. citing Golding, Robert of Mortain, pp. 124, pp. 4-5 and 21; J. Kliene, pers. comm. West 128-9 and 131-2. of the mound were medieval fish ponds converted into water garden features when the 8 Kliene, The Mount, p. 11 mansion was built.

9 Gervase of Canterbury: Historical Works, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls Series 73, (1880), vol. II, p.

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