The Gatehouse website record for South Moreton 'siege work'

In the civil parish of South Moreton. In the historic county of Berkshire (Modern Authority of Oxfordshire, 1974 county of Oxfordshire).

Further north from South Moreton's conquest castle, surrounding a manor house that may date back to C12, are the extensive remains of the moat of a Siege-Castle of King Stephen 's reign. In the 1150s, the King was busy trying to prevent his cousin, the Empress Matilda, from appropriating his throne. During a fierce Civil War, the Empress' main HQ was at Wallingford and Moreton Castle is thought to have been one of three built to keep her forces in check. (Nash - britannia.com)
The earthwork remains of a Medieval moat at SU 5624 8834 which forms an irregular asymmetrical enclosure 85 x 130m. The site is masked
to the south-west by the incursion of the houses of South Moreton. Attached to the north-western and north-eastern corners of the moat are two short lengths of bank. No internal features were visible. (PastScape–ref. Small, 1992)
I consider this rather ordinary, if irregular, moat may have been built as a moated manor house to replace the possibly unfinished castle (qv) probably well after the Anarchy. I expect that the castle was used as the document siege work and there were never two castles at South Moreton.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SU56248833

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 237494
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 2700 '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.

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