West Dean

In the civil parish of West Dean.
In the historic county of Wiltshire (Modern Authority of Wiltshire, 1974 county of Wiltshire).

Castle Mound. The poorly preserved remains of a motte are situated on the wooded crest of a ridge 60m east of the site of the old parish church of St Mary. A circular mound measures 53m in diameter and rises a maximum of 2.9m above the bottom of a shallow ditch which surrounds it. Short stretches of this ditch on the north and south south west have been filled with debris but elsewhere it measures 12m wide and 0.8m deep. The top of the mound was deliberately levelled in C18 for use as a bowling green, which was approached from the south west via a causeway which measures circa 3m wide. Creighton writes that, given the relatively large diameter of the remains, this may have been a ringwork infilled to form the recorded bowling green rather than a levelled motte.

This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Earthworks remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SU25682746

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 222959