Knapwell Overhall Grove

In the civil parish of Boxworth. In the historic county of Cambridgeshire (Modern Authority of Cambridgeshire, 1974 county of Cambridgeshire).

Mound, perhaps a small Norman motte, on the flat Kimmeridge clay floor of the valley, 50 yards W of the stream. Finds made during an unpublished excavation in 1929 include St Neots ware from 2ft to 3ft below the surface of the mound. The mound is circular, 6ft high and 80ft in diameter with a flat top 30ft to 40ft across. The wet ditch is 30ft wide on the NE and 20ft wide on the SW and holds about two and a half feet of water. On the SW the ditch is crossed by a flat causeway 10ft wide which, in view of the cupped ends of the ditch on either side, is probably original. On the N and W a bank 15ft wide and 1ft to two and a half feet high may be the remains of an outer enclosure or merely a hedge bank separating the mound and ditch from an area of ridge and furrow to the N. (RCHME 1969)
The medieval Overhall manor house presumably stood amid the ancient enclosures in the north part of Overhall grove, inside the rectangular moated site, c. 35 m. by 40 m., whose southern ditch is still wet. Pottery fragments indicate habitation there from the 11th century to the 14th. That moat is surrounded by an irregularly embanked enclosure, c. 165 m. by 210 m., possibly intended for keeping cattle. Perhaps no longer occupied after the Lovetts inherited the manor, the house had disappeared well before 1600. The earthworks, entirely concealed by trees by 1650, were rediscovered only c. 1900. (VCH)

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TL33676315

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 369223
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 01773 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern) p21
    Wright, A.P.M. and Lewis, C.P. (eds), 1989, VCH Cambridge and the Isle of Ely Vol9 p271-74 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15433 [mainly manorial history]
    Taylor, Alison, 1986, Castles of Cambridgeshire (Cambridge)
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p41
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    RCHME, 1968, An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire. Vol1: west Cambridgeshire p163 plate2
    Phillips, 1948, in Salzman, L.F. (ed), VCH Cambridge and the Isle of Ely Vol2 p34
• Journal Articles
  • Hurst, J.G., 1956, 'Saxo-Norman pottery in East Anglia' Proceedings of the Cambridgeshire Antiquarian Society Vol49 p53
    Hughes, T. McK., 1903, 'Earthworks at Boxworth and Knapwell' Proceedings of the Cambridgeshire Antiquarian Society Vol10 p237