Monument record MDO5892 - The Moot, Cowgrove

A ditched and banked sub-rectangular enclosure with an off-centre mound within it is visible on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery. The feature is visible in 1946 as a 64m by 54m enclosure within a 3.5m wide ditch and surrounded by an enclosing bank between 3m and 6m wide. Only three sides of the enclosure are visible, the northwest and southest ends of the enclosing bank and ditch abutting, or being truncated by, a historic field boundary of possible medieval origin. An elliptical mound 30.4m by 20m is visible on current Ldiar imagery within the enclosure and against its southwest side, where it may also abut, or be truncated by, the same historic field boundary. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

ST 99000020. An undated enclosure at Cowgrove, immediately east of the Roman Road from Hamworthy to Badbury Rings, lies on a southwest slope, 100 feet above O.D. on heavy clay of the Reading Beds. The area is roughly rectangular measuring 210 feet from northwest to southeast and 180 ft. from northeast to southwest; it is levelled into the slope and bounded on the northwest and southeast by broad banks 3ft high. On the northeast it is bounded by a scarp 3ft high falling towards the interior, and on the south west by a modern field-bank and ditch. A large flat-topped mound nearly 100ft across and 5ft. high occupies a central position in the southwest half of the area. <1>

A ditched and banked sub-rectangular enclosure with an off-centre mound within it is visible on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery <4-5>.

The feature is visible in 1946 as a 64m by 54m enclosure within a 3.5m wide ditch and surrounded by an enclosing bank between 3m and 6m wide (4). Only three sides of the enclosure are visible, the northwest and southeast ends of the enclosing bank and ditch abutting, or being truncated by, a historic field boundary of possible medieval origin (6). An elliptical mound 30.4m by 20m is visible on current Lidar imagery within the enclosure and against its southwest side, where it may also abut, or be truncated by, the same historic field boundary <5>.

The feature may be the site of a medieval moated manor. Its name suggests it may have been the site of a medieval manorial moot.

The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 53 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(94) ENCLOSURE (99000020), at Cowgrove, immediately E. of the Roman road from Hamworthy to Badbury Rings, lies on a S.W. slope, 100 ft. above O.D., on heavy clay of the Reading Beds. The area is roughly rectangular, measuring 210 ft. from N.W. to S.E. and 180 ft. from N.E. to S.W.; it is levelled into the slope and bounded on the N.W. and S.E. by broad banks 3 ft. high. On the N.E. it is bounded by a scarp 3 ft. high falling towards the interior, and on the S.W. by a modern field-bank and ditch. A large flat-topped mound nearly 100 ft. across and 5 ft. high occupies a central position in the S.W. half of the area. The enclosure lies oblique to the Roman road and is unrelated to it. Sumner suggests that it was a Saxon meeting place (Local Papers (1931), 36–40); locally it is said to be an old clay-pit.’

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1978 (Map). SDO17396.

(ST 99000020) Earthwork (NR)

<3> Papworth, M, 1997, Pamphill Parish, Kingston Lacy Estate, Wessex Region, 71 (Unpublished document). SDO13960.

‘Cowgrove Moot 150m north of Walnut Farm, Pamphill … An enclosure at Cowgrove is probably the site of the medieval manorial moot. Its proximity to the Roman road 112,194 and the Court House (110,003), which local tradition describes as the site of the post-medieval manor court, supports this theory. The manor court rolls from 1383 describe the courts as being held at Kingston and this may mean that by that time they were being held within a building at the manor house of Kingston rather than at Cowgrove. The Badbury Hundred court meetings were rarealy held at Badbury usually they took place at Walford, presumably Walford Mill.

Description of earthworks: (fig 21) A flat topped mound lies immediately north of an east-west hedge. It is 21m dia. and 1.5m high. 20m to the west is a ditch with a bank 6m wide and 0.6m high beyond it. The ditch and bank are aligned north-east to south-west. At the south end it stops at the hedge, to the north it merges with a mound 11.5m east to west diameter and 1m high. The north-east side of the mound continues as a terrace cut into the south slope turns through approximately 90 degrees and runs north-west to south-east for 64m to a wooden fence and a track which forms the south-east side of the enclosure. Slight traces of a third side of the monument exist here in the form of a faint ditch and the edge of a terrace. The terrace on the north-east side has a hedge on top of the scarp and at the foot of the terrace another slight scarp is visible. The area is roughly rectangular measuring 64m north-west to south-east and 55m north-east to south-west.

Condition: Most of the site is permanent pasture and appears unploughed. The earthworks are clear and well preserved apart from on the south-east side where the broad bank recorded by RCHM (1975, 53) has been destroyed by a track. This field was called Home Close in 1774 (Woodward) and was pasture.’

<4> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 4153-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16299.

<5> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 50cm (Aerial Photograph). SDO15306.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209501 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 12:31PM