Scheduled Ancient Monument: MEDIEVAL RINGWORK IN BURGATE WOOD (30571)

The monument includes a medieval ringwork located about 530m west of St Mary's Church and 300m south west of Burgate Hall moated site, which is the subject of a separate scheduling. It lies towards the southern end of Burgate Wood, which existed in the medieval period. The ringwork is visible as a sub-circular enclosure with maximum overall dimensions of approximately 76m north-south by 70m east-west, surrounded by a ditch and inner bank. The ditch, which ranges between 8m and 15m in width and contains some water on the northern side of the enclosure, has become partly infilled, but remains open to a depth of up to 2.2m, measured from the external ground surface. The bank, constructed of earth quarried from the ditch, is up to 10m wide at the base and still stands to a height of around 1m, although originally it would have been higher and surmounted by a timber palisade. A depression about 5m wide in the bank on the west side of the enclosure marks the probable site of an entrance, partly infilled by the erosion of the bank on either side, and against the outer edge of the ditch opposite this, surrounded on the north, west and south sides by the slight remains of a ditch, there is a sub-rectangular platform raised about 0.5m above the prevailing ground level and measuring about 17m NNW-SSE by 8m. This platform probably supported a building or buildings relating to the entrance. A low, causeway-like ridge across the ditch on the opposite side of the enclosure is not associated with any corresponding gap in the inner bank and is unlikely to be an original feature. The ringwork is believed to be the site of a medieval manor house, probably dating from soon after the Norman Conquest, and fragments of pottery found on the site provide evidence of occupation during the 11th and 12th centuries. According to the Domesday survey of 1086, there was a substantial manor in Burgate before 1066, held by a free man named Wulfwin. After the Conquest the tenant was Adelhelm under the overlordship of Aubrey de Vere, and by the 13th century it was held by the de Burgate family, thought to be descendants of Adelhelm, in whose hands it remained until the early 15th century. The ringwork was probably abandoned when the moated manor house to the east of it was constructed.