MM059

Langstone motte and enclosure  

 

Designated  

Newport  

Langstone  

337192  

189551  

Defence  

Motte and Bailey  

Medieval  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises the remains of a medieval motte, an artificial earthen mound that supported a defensive tower or range of buildings. The mound rises some 3m above its former bailey to the E, now occupied by the 16th century Langstone Court but significantly more above the curve of the road to the N and E, which cuts through its former ditch and has removed a counterscarp bank set downhill to the N along with a portion of the motte itself. The low brick ruins of an abandoned potato store survive cut into the eastern summit of the motte. A rectangular earthwork enclosure comprising a worn bank and ditch situated about 150m along the ridge to the E may represent an additional bailey but is more likely to be part of a later garden layout associated with the post-medieval Court; the main bailey is likely to have been in the area of the house itself. The motte and its ditch were partly excavated in 1964 by Leslie Alcock ahead of the widening of the road. This revealed the base of a substantial masonry wall on the northern edge of the motte associated with 12th and 13th century pottery, which seems to have been demolished and robbed out by the 15th or 16th century and is likely to represent the remains of a tower or encircling shell keep. The pottery finds also indicate that the ditch was cleared out in the 16th century, when the destroyed counterscarp bank was created, possibly at the same time that the Court was built. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of medieval defensive and domestic architecture. It forms an important element within the wider medieval landscape with medieval fishponds to the NE and the parish church 0.5km to the S. It has high potential to retain significant buried structural remains and associated deposits containing artefactual and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, use, material culture and the contemporary landscape. It has historical value as a documented house of the Bloet family held as a knight's fee held under the lordship of Chepstow. The area scheduled comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. That to the W is irregular and measures 50m from NE to SW by up to 30m transversely. That to the E is rectangular and measures 74m from NNW to SSE by 72m transversely..