Monument record WNN 001 - Cumberland's Mount, medieval earthwork in Staverton Park (Med)

A half-moon shaped earthwork consisting of a single bank and ditch facing the upward slope to the S. The N side towards the stream is unprotected. Chord about 400 feet. Excavated 1910 by W M Capp and H St George Gray. Fairly conclusively proved to be Med (associated by the writers with the Peasants' revolt), but in the light of modern knowledge, pottery looks C13. Earthwork does not fit with any well-known type of castle or domestic moat. Its location within a medieval deer park (see WNN 008) suggests that it had a specialised use connected with deer management (S1).
1910 excavation archive held in microfiche by NMR (R3). Finds from 1910 include Stamford and Thetford wares.
Site partly ploughed in 1970s.Scatter (fairly substatial) of C12-C13 sherds, burnt clay and a few pieces of struck flint collected 1972- 1974 by H Ferguson.
Staverton Park probably created as deer park C11- C13.
1986: Open, downslope side of earthwork gives onto valley peat, which if its purpose was defensive, would have made a complete circuit unnecessary. A few oaks grow on bank, which is mainly bracken covered. Grass grows in peaty interior. Bank and ditch are both well-defined; bank stands to at least 1m at centre, where it is broken by a gap with a corresponding causeway in the ditch. Interior ploughed 1982 (S1).
Detailed account of earthwork, excavations, in the form of 13 trenches by H St George Gray, and finds in (S2). Some (or all?) of the finds are now in IPSMG and include Stamford and Thetford wares and fragments of C12/C13 pottery and kiln furniture or metal- working apparatus ? (S3)(S4).
EH 1993: Monument known locally as Cromwell's Mount, close to N boundary of Staverton Park, includes an earthwork with low curving bank and external ditches, forming a `D' shape semi-enclosure, approximately 60m NW-SE by 38m NE-SW. A further, slighter, outer bank, approximately 0.3m high, now 0.4m deep are also visible 15m to the S. Inner bank has maximum height of 1m, ditch now between 0.5m and 1m deep. Overall dimensions of earthworks are approximately 92m east-west by 85m north-south. On S side of earthwork is an entrance marked by gap in centre of bank and causeway across ditch (S5). 1991: Usual rabbit damage. Deer park (S6). Suggested that the earthwork may have been used for culling deer (S7).
August 2002: suggested as 'red hill' (salt working site) by Jane Allen (Orford Museum)(S8).

November 2015. Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Beauty National Mapping Programme.
The earthworks of Cumberland’s Mount, a Scheduled medieval bank and ditch embankment located on the northern edge of Staverton Park are visible on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery (S9-S12). Staverton Park is thought to have been created as deer park between the 11th-13th centuries, potentially as early as 1178 (WNN 008). The date to the pottery associated with the embankment would suggest that it relates to the deer park phase, as suggested above, rather than pre-dating it.

The Lidar and aerial photographs would indicate a substantial C-shaped embankment, flanked by a broad outer ditch – measuring approximately 92m by 47m. Conjoined to this to the south would appear to be a broadly D-shaped annex enclosure, approximately 65m by 32m. Two sections of linear earthwork bank are recorded to the west and east of the main earthworks. The earthworks as visible on the aerial photographs and Lidar do not offer any fresh interpretations or major additions to the site to that previously recorded. However the identification of further boundaries and enclosures to the south on the Lidar and aerial photographs (WNN 027), also assumed to be medieval in date, but potentially pre-dating the deer park, does add significantly to the landscape context and setting of the site.
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 25th November 2015.