Monument record 1965/4 - Motte and Associated Earthworks East of Old Rectory

<1> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, vol.II p.584 & p.829 (Book). SCH1389.

Ormerod records ‘a very considerable tumulus…three yards high and fourteen in diameter’ immediately below the east end of the church. He records that the mound was opened by the reverend Charles Mytton and ‘a great quantity of human bones and some say coins were discovered'.

<2> Shone W, 1911, Prehistoric Man in Cheshire, p.55 (Book). SCH2710.

If coins were discovered by the Reverend Charles Mytton, then the mound may be Saxon in origin. Postulates that the location may indicate that this was a burial place of ’… those Northumbrian Warriors who fell in the hour of victory in the Battle of Chester’.

<3> Thompson Watkin W. T., 1886, Roman Cheshire: A Description of Roman Remains in the County of Chester, p.48 (Book). SCH2878.

‘At the east end of Eccleston Church there is a mound about nine feet high, and 42 feet in diameter at the base, which is probably either a botontinus or a road side exploratory mount, but it has never been examined, except that some 35 years since, it was reduced in height, and the material then obtained was used to form an artificial bank by its side. The present sexton helped to remove this soil, and asserts that no discoveries whatever were made on the occasion. The mound lies between the [Roman] road and the river.’

<4> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1986, Eccleston SJ46SW12 Mound (Report). SCH1096.

‘An elongated, irregularly shaped mound 15-20m diameter and 2.5m high. It is much mutilated by modern disturbances…The mound's date and function remain uncertain. Perhaps because of late disturbance, no positive distinctive features are visible. It seems to lack the size, associated defensive features (especially any substantial ditch) or accurate defensive siting actually against the natural scarp for a motte. Yet if there is any accuracy in the reported finding of coins in its make-up then it should be Roman or post-Roman in date; while 'a great quantity of human bone' could, if articulated, be evidence of a funerary function, but equally clearly, if they were disarticulated fragments mixed in the mound's make-up, would be evidence that the mound is secondary to an inhumation cemetery, remains from which became casually incorporated in scraping up soil. In view of the proximity of the old church, such a cemetery might easily be an early Christian one, as the place-name Eccleston hints, or even later medieval. The existing evidence is inconclusive.’

<5> Varley, W. J. & Jackson, J. W., 1940, Prehistoric Cheshire, Schedule V (Book). SCH2692.

Listed as a barrow.

<6> English Heritage, Various, Schedule Entry (Scheduled Ancient Monuments Amendment), 22591 (Scheduling Record). SCH2950.

'The monument is a motte and associated earthworks strategically situated on a local high point overlooking the River Dee. The monument includes an oval earthen motte, or mound, mutilated on its eastern side, and partly surrounded by a ditch and bank with other earthen banks to the south and south-west. The motte measures 28m by 14.5m by 3m high and is flanked on its north and west sides by a ditch 8m wide and 0.3m deep, beyond which are faint traces of an outer bank 14.5m wide by 0.1m deep which continues in a south-westerly direction for a distance of approximately 17m. To the south of the motte, and running along the crest above the slope down to the river, is a bank measuring 23.5m long by 10m wide and 1.3m high.'

<7> Harris, B.E. (ed), 1987, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume I, vol.I, p.83 (Book). SCH3556.

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ46SW12 1976 (Index). SCH2487.

J Rigg (Field Inspector) provides a detailed description and discussion of the feature and the evidence as of 1959. Concludes that the earthworks are not a Bronze Age barrow. Notes that WT Watkin (see 3) went to ‘some trouble’ checking the accuracy of Ormerod’s report (see 1). Watkin concluded that ‘…nothing had been discovered during the excavations of c.1851’.

<9> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, no.69 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.

<10> County Historic Environment Record, 1973-1985, Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin, No.2, p.10 (Journal/Periodical). SCH565.

<11> Professor Nick Higham, 2011, Jubilee Wood, Eccleston: Historic Landscape Assessment (Client Report). SCH6590.

Notes that the mound was previously interpreted as a prehistoric round barrow, the re-interpretation as a motte only occuring the early 1990s. The '...mound may have been either constructed or improved in the post-medieval period as a belvedere or prospect mount, particularly as it lay in the lands controlled by the rector. Before the construction of the by-pass, it would have provided distant views of Chester up the Dee and cranes working in Chester and a few high buildings are still visible from the mound. This interpretation would explain why it is so steep and apparently unweathered today.'. The three possible interpretations (barrow, motte and prospect mound) are not mutually exclusive.