Private - not visible from public access (permission required to view)
Surroundings:
Ancient woodland
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Holt Pond Motte is an ancient monument, postulated as a siegework against the more substantial Mottleys Castle just to the east. However, it resembles a typical moated site. Scheduling description below.
The monument includes a small motte, probably dating to the 11th or 12th century, situated on level ground within Motleys Copse near Rowlands Castle. It includes a roughly circular inner platform, 12m in diameter, enclosed by a flat topped earthen bank, 8m wide and up to 0.8m high, and an outer ditch, 9m wide and 0.5m deep. The inner platform is elevated up to 1.3m above the surrounding woodland, with no trace of internal features. A possible original entrance is indicated by a slight lowering of the bank on the northern side and a causeway, 7m wide, across the outer ditch. To the south east, the ditch has been widened away from the motte, possibly as a result of later quarrying, to form a shallow pond, up to 2m deep and 12m across. Although undated, the motte is probably broadly contemporary with a larger ringwork and bailey situated 200m to the north east, which is the subject of a separate scheduling.
(Continued) Both of these monuments fall within the boundaries of the medieval royal hunting forest of Bere and form part of the Hundred of Finchdean owned by Robert, Earl of Arundel. The motte may therefore represent a small siege castle erected against the ringwork and bailey by Henry I before he banished Robert of Arundel from the kingdom in 1101. (Scheduling Report)
The Holt is private woodland, managed for pheasant shooting. Hence, public access is discouraged and minatory notices are on display where the public footpath meets other tracks.
This tree and its two companions look as if they were layered in a hedge long ago. This would make sense if the pond was hedged so as to allow water for livestock in the field just to the north, while keeping the animals out of the wood.
Holt Pond Motte is an ancient monument, postulated as a siegework against the more substantial Mottleys Castle just to the east. However, it resembles a typical moated site. Scheduling description below.
The monument includes a small motte, probably dating to the 11th or 12th century, situated on level ground within Motleys Copse near Rowlands Castle. It includes a roughly circular inner platform, 12m in diameter, enclosed by a flat topped earthen bank, 8m wide and up to 0.8m high, and an outer ditch, 9m wide and 0.5m deep. The inner platform is elevated up to 1.3m above the surrounding woodland, with no trace of internal features. A possible original entrance is indicated by a slight lowering of the bank on the northern side and a causeway, 7m wide, across the outer ditch. To the south east, the ditch has been widened away from the motte, possibly as a result of later quarrying, to form a shallow pond, up to 2m deep and 12m across. Although undated, the motte is probably broadly contemporary with a larger ringwork and bailey situated 200m to the north east, which is the subject of a separate scheduling.
(Continued) Both of these monuments fall within the boundaries of the medieval royal hunting forest of Bere and form part of the Hundred of Finchdean owned by Robert, Earl of Arundel. The motte may therefore represent a small siege castle erected against the ringwork and bailey by Henry I before he banished Robert of Arundel from the kingdom in 1101. (Scheduling Report)
The Holt is private woodland, managed for pheasant shooting. Hence, public access is discouraged and minatory notices are on display where the public footpath meets other tracks.
This tree and its two companions look as if they were layered in a hedge long ago. This would make sense if the pond was hedged so as to allow water for livestock in the field just to the north, while keeping the animals out of the wood.