Cumberland's Mount medieval earthwork in Staverton Park

Reasons for Designation

The medieval earthwork known as Cumberland's Mount or Cromwell's Mount is of an unusual kind and excavation has shown that it is of medieval date. It has significance, also, for the study of the history and use of Staverton Park, which is believed to have been created as a deer park at some time between the later 11th and mid-13th centuries. The situation of the earthwork within the park, together with the evidence of date, suggests that the enclosure had a specialised use connected with deer management. The monument survives well and will retain important archaeological evidence, further to that recorded in the very limited excavation of 1910, concerning its construction and its function when in use. Evidence of the local environment, at the time of and prior to its use, will also be preserved in the soils buried beneath the banks and in the fill of the ditches.

Details

The monument, which is also known locally as Cromwell's Mount, is located at or close to the northern boundary of Staverton Park as shown in a map of 1601. It includes an earthwork situated near the foot of a gentle north-facing slope and backing onto a peat-filled valley, now drained. The earthwork is most visible as a low, curving bank and external ditch, facing the slope and defining the south, west and east sides of a D-shaped semi-enclosure whose internal dimensions are approximately 60m north west - south east by 38m north east - south west. A further, slighter, outer bank and ditch are also visible to the south. The inner bank, constructed largely of sand quarried from the ditch, has slumped over the inner edge of the ditch but survives to a maximum height of 1m on the south side, diminishing to north west and north east. The ditch, which has become partly infilled and is now between 0.5m and 1m deep below ground surface level, has been shown by limited excavations carried out in 1910 to have been originally shallow and flat-bottomed, measuring 7m-9m wide and about 1.2m deep. The width of bank and ditch together is between 15m and 25m. Approximately 15m to the south of the outer edge of the ditch and parallel to it is another, slighter bank approximately 0.3m high and a second ditch, originally about 5m wide and of similar depth to the first, now marked by a hollow 0.4m deep in the ground surface. These have a combined width of approximately 15m north - south and extend over approximately 80m east-west. The overall dimensions of the earthworks are approximately 92m east-west by 85m north-south. On the south side of the earthwork is an entrance, marked by a gap in the centre of the inner bank and a corresponding causeway across the ditch. There is no evidence of earthworks on the north side of the enclosure, which would have been bounded by the marshy ground of the valley bottom. Evidence of medieval occupation includes pottery, chiefly of 12th and 13th century date, which was found by exavation in deposits within the enclosure and underlying the bank and, more recently, by fieldwalking of the interior.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

21295

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Rackham, O, Ancient Woodland: its history, vegetation and uses in England, (1980), 293-295
Buisseret, D, Mapline in Perambulating The County Of Suffolk With John Norden, 1601, Vol. 63, (1991), 6,7
Gray, H G, Proc Suffolk Inst Archaeol in The Earthwork near Butley, Vol. 14, (1910), 69-90

Other
Title: Maps showing the estates of Sir Michael Stanhope Source Date: 1601 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Ferguson, H F, Shaw, M E, Shaw, S, Suffolk SMR WNN 001, (1976)
RCHM(E), Everson, P L and Taylor C C and Dunn, C J, Change And Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire, (1991)

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