In 2000, Eric Elstob created and endowed the Marlborough Mound Trust, the subject of the study being the then rather neglected mound that dominates the grounds of Marlborough College, Wiltshire. Clearing the vegetation and stabilising the earthwork were the prime aims, but, coupled with these aims, archaeological and historical research were undertaken in order to understand the chronology of the mound. A series of annual lectures was established, some forming part of this book, others feeding into the contents, such as the 2015 lecture by Jeremy Ashbee of English Heritage.
It has long been known that the mound or motte formed part of a major royal castle, and the only part to survive from its long medieval history. Clues that the origin of the mound might be earlier, possibly a contemporary of Silbury Hill (due to the finds of antlers from earlier excavations), coupled with the knowledge from eighteenth-century engravings that the motte formed a garden feature, suggested that the mound had a long history.
The first chapter, by Jim Leary and Josh Pollard, presents the evidence that the mound did indeed have Neolithic origins, making it the second largest mound of that period in Britain, if not in Europe. An ‘Afterword’ to the chapter summarises the work of the Round Mounds Project, itself stimulated by the work at Marlborough. The project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, set out to examine castle mottes that might have prehistoric potential. Of the 154 sites identified, forty-six were shortlisted for examination in the field and, of these, twenty were selected for coring in 2015 and 2016.
Seventy per cent of the sites were found to be medieval in origin, whilst one site was a late medieval or post-medieval prospect mound and another a gun emplacement of the 1640s. The coring of the motte at Skipsea in Yorkshire did produce prehistoric evidence, suggesting that the Normans enhanced an Iron Age mound to create the motte. A mound in Slough is now thought to be the remains of an Anglo-Saxon burial rather than a motte.
In the second chapter, Oliver Creighton examines the castles of Wessex, and the landscape in which they are located, in the period from around the Norman Conquest up to 1154, the end of the reign of Stephen and the so-called Anarchy. Particular attention is paid to the day-to-day roles of the castle as centres of residence and of estates and their management, rather than the military role, an aspect of castle studies that has grown in importance since the 1980s. Wessex was an area much favoured by the monarchy at this time, and the number of royal forests and parks is one reason for several royal residences there with castles. Besides Marlborough, there was Ludgershall and Wallingford, to name but two, and not forgetting Winchester, the importance of which over London in the Norman period remained until around the 1140s – London becoming a secure centre for King Stephen during the Anarchy. Several little-known castles are considered, such as Bincknoll in Wiltshire, as well as temporary structures such as siege castles, Creighton and others having studied such castles in a published research project. The location of some of the Wessex castles in earlier fortifications such as hillforts and Anglo-Saxon burhs is also considered, and although St George’s Tower in Oxford is dismissed as pre-Conquest, a recent study by Jeremy Haslam has argued for its late tenth-century date, part of King Ǣthelred’s defences that includes St Michael’s Northgate.
The editor’s own chapter examines the history and development of Marlborough Castle through the Middle Ages, sections covering the period up to 1216, and then from 1216 to 1548. This is a most detailed account of the castle, with over 200 endnotes highlighting the sources used. Barber compares features of this royal castle with other crown properties, helped by those accounts that date from the 1170s – none earlier survive. Of particular interest is the information of what had been provided for Archbishop Hugh Walter’s siege of the castle on behalf of the absent Richard i in 1194 during the rebellion of John, the king’s brother, crossbows clearly taking precedence over longbows.
Besides the history, Barber examines the known buildings that once stood in the castle: the keep and towers, the bailey buildings including the great hall and the king’s chamber. The gardens also feature, as do recreational aspects enjoyed by the royal household such as hunting. The castle also had a large fishpond that originally lay a short distance from the town.
The final chapter, by Brian Dix, concerns the use of the mound as a feature of the extensive gardens associated with Lord Seymour’s new house in the sixteenth century; mounts as viewing platforms are to be found in a number of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century gardens and parks. Later, in the eighteenth century, a grotto — recently restored — was built into the side of the mound, and the environs of Marlborough House, the home of Algernon Seymour, Lord Hertford, and his wife, Frances, included a wilderness and canal.
Appendices cover: the state of the castle in 1327, remedying the defects costing over £550, a study of the castle by H C Brentnall, first published in 1933, the constables of the castle and a summary of the medieval archaeological findings made at the castle before and after 2019, including the bailey wall and a possible mural tower.
Bibliography, notes and index complete the volume; in the former, Cathcart King should be listed under King, for Pryor read Prior, Crouch’s valuable study of William Marshall is now in a third edition and the report on Trowbridge by Graham and Davies is not listed. However, these minor blemishes do not distract from an excellent and informative volume, and the editor, authors and publisher are to be congratulated.
