A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



rampart not being clearly defined, and consist of one ditch on the north and 

 south-east sides, with the ballast thrown inward to form one rampart. The 

 ditch and rampart are lacking on the south-west side ; possibly they once 

 existed ; but as will be seen by the Section E-A the ground outside at that 

 point is I 5 feet below the enclosed portion. The rampart and ditch where 

 they exist are of some power ; perhaps once a stone wall or stockade protected 

 the south-west side. The form of the enclosure is unusual, and by its near- 

 ness to the church must be classed as a mote castle of the Culworth and 

 Sulgrave type. The ditch was a dry ditch and never intended to hold water. 

 The position commands the north for some miles, but other points to a 

 limited extent only. The subsoil is stone. 



The circular enclosure, some 40 feet below on the west, is a small plat- 

 form surrounded by a ditch probably not of the same date as the mount. 



Cransley: Great Cransley Mound (3I miles W.S.W. of Kettering). — 

 This small mound, surrounded by a ditch, stands within a plantation a 

 quarter of a mile north-west from the church, 400 feet above 

 sea level, and 100 feet above a stream which flows north-east 

 half a mile east. It is shown on the one-inch Ordnance Survey 

 (1835), and called a 'tumulus,' but was certainly a mote castle 1 

 mound. As a castle mound it is small in circumference, like many ^ ''^^^r^" " 



, .-»Ti 1- 1- 1 f r 1-1L • CjREAT CRANSLtY 



others in Northamptonshire, being only 16 teet high above its Mound. 



ditch ; but its situation near the church, and the comparatively 

 large space nearly level on its summit (45 feet in diameter), mark it as having 

 been erected for defensive purposes. The position has no great command, as 

 there is higher land on the west, and the land on the north is higher than that 

 on the south, as will be seen by the section. The story common to castle 

 mounds all over England of a treasure hidden within the mound is current in 

 the district, and a great diagonal section has been cut through (which has 

 permanently injured the work) to seek for this treasure, or perhaps the mound 

 was taken for a grave. There is now no trace of a court or of stonework. 



Culworth Castle (6j miles N.N. W. of Brackley). — This small ramparted 

 enclosure stands upon ground 550 feet above sea-level and 150 feet above 



a stream five-eighths of a mile west. One-eighth 

 x=isa£==iLs=«/;5;i>, of a mile to the north and a quarter of a mile to the 

 ♦ -^5 , ll'/'i^l'' south are combes or gullies with small brooks 

 't^'"' "-^^^d"^ running roughly west; hence the position, though 



. »".■.; "^K ^ ~ | 'j -cLcH not naturally strong, commands the country to 

 Culworth Castle. the west and north-west, but is weaker on the 



other sides. The entrenchments, consisting of one ditch with the ballast 

 thrown inward as a rampart, form one enclosure only, which rises a few feet 

 above the ground outside ; a somewhat similar enclosure, though not now so 

 perfectly circular, exists at Sulgrave, i J miles south-east, both being built 

 upon the same principle as the keep of Castle Dykes, 7J miles north-north- 

 east. This enclosure is in a fair state of preservation, except that a portion of 

 the south-east has been destroyed at some date to extend the rectory garden. 

 There is no trace of any other earthworks connected with this, and a sunk 

 fence bounding the rectory garden, running east from the south-east of the 

 entrenchment, must not be regarded as part of a bailey, but is modern 

 work. 



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