The Gatehouse website record for Wootton Wawen

In the civil parish of Wootton Wawen. In the historic county of Warwickshire (Modern Authority of Warwickshire, 1974 county of Warwickshire).

Fieldwork 200m south of St Peter's Church located a small motte and bailey castle which was later enlarged to form a rectangular manorial enclosure which was enclosed on three sides by a pond. St Peter's Church was a Saxon minster. There was also a Benedictine priory founded in late C11 in Wootton Wawen. A castle seems a likely possibility in this high status manor. The site has alternatively been sugested as an ice house or post medieval fishpond. An area of relict features, many in a very good state of preservation. Chief among them is what appears to have been a very small motte and bailey castle. This sat at the front of a gently sloping promontory between the River Alne and a tributary, taking advantage of a long steep bluff along the W edge of the Alne's flood plain. Most of the motte has survived, as has the N part of its ditch. The rest of the ditch was infilled in the Medieval period when the bailey was greatly enlarged to form a rectangular enclosure. This was defended by a bank and ditch to the N and a large bank to the E, S and W. An extensive three-armed pond surrounds the manorial complex on three sides. Within the enclosure there appear to be a number of faint platforms. The chronology of these features is not fully clear.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SP153630

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 871073
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 4533 '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.

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes. I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.

It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from any site without proper recording and reporting. Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get with this site.