The Gatehouse website record for Hockliffe Manor

In the civil parish of Hockliffe. In the historic county of Bedfordshire (Modern Authority of Bedfordshire, 1974 county of Bedfordshire).

Moated site which lies approximately 100m to the south of the parish Church of St Nicholas, which is detached from the modern village of Hockliffe. The monument consists of a small sub-rectangular moated enclosure set within a square platform which projects from the natural slope of the hillside. The platform is adjacent, on the north, west, and south, to a series of further building platforms and closes which provide evidence of an associated settlement. The hillside to the south west of the of the building platforms and the moated site retains evidence of former cultivation earthworks (ridge and furrow) related to the occupation of the settlement. A section excavated in 1909 across the ditch surrounding the central island produced pottery and a number of metal objects dated to the medieval period. The moated site can be identified as a messuage (dwelling) within the estate of Hockliffe Manor in records which date to C13. Interpreted variously as a moated manorial site, a fortified manor house or a Civil War battery. (PastScape)
Recorded as a possible castle by King.
RCHME field investigator, W.D. Cocroft, argued against this being a manorial site on the bases of the ditches not being able to hold water and the lack of medieval finds. Dry ditches are by no means unknown for manorial sites and finds evidence can troublesome, particular as the site has not been properly excavated, and is adjacent to clear medieval occupation. Cocroft alternatively suggested the site as a Civil War battery on the bases of a commanding position above Watling Street (no finds evidence). The position per se could be used to argue for a fortification of any age and the location is, in fact, readily bypassed.
Appears likely as a manorial centre, with earthworks that given a military or defensive impression. Location means might have been a small castle, presumably of the probably sub-tenants the Malherbe family, but this possibility is otherwise unsupported.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SP96612684

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 346491
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 10 '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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