The Gatehouse website record for Corsham

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Hartham Park; Biddlestone

In the civil parish of Corsham. In the historic county of Wiltshire (Modern Authority of Wiltshire, 1974 county of Wiltshire).

A high mound, probably a medieval castle mound. A water tower stands on top amidst much worked oolite. There are no signs of a bailey or moat (Lindley). Grinsell (VCH) lists this as probably a castle mound, 30 paces in diameter and 10 ft high. (A typographical error in the VCH gives the NGR of this feature for Bushy Barron, Biddestone, ST 87 SE 1). (Lindley; VCH). The feature is situated in a beech plantation on level ground. It is described as a tumulus in 1828(1st edn OS) and in 1837(Tithe map) was unenclosed and part of Great Rookery field. The mound, composed of earth and oolite rubble, is 25.0m in diameter at the base, 9.0m across the flat top and 3.4m high, with no trace of a perimeter ditch. A stone and earth ramp running up the Southern side is possibly for access to a massive late 19th or early 20th century water tank set upon cast iron pillars over a bore hole through the mound. It could be a barrow, a small castle mount, or a medieval mill mound, when the ramp could have been part of the original structure (Field Investigators Comments-F1 NVQ 11-MAY-76). Dismissed as a motte by Cathcart King who considers it to be the base for a gazebo, there being a mound with gazebo nearby (King). (PastScape)
Hartman may be the site of a DMV and was the site of a medieval manor, the manor house probably being where the Park House stands, so not an entirely unfeasible general location for a castle although clearly this mound is highly questionable as a motte. Is probably the wrong side of Hartman Park House to be a prospect mound (the home farm being in the way) and I suspect was a windmill mound. Can be safely rejected as a castle mound on the bases of form (no surrounding ditch or bailey) and location (not the site of a manorial centre).

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is ST857724

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 208396
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is ST87SE451 '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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