Edvin Loach Ringwork

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a motte and bailey castle, and the standing and buried remains of St Mary's Old Church at Edvin Loach, and the buried remains of part of the burial ground associated with Old Church. The monument is situated at the highest point in the parish, overlooking rolling hills in all directions, and some 300m north west of the settlement of Edvin Loach. The low motte, with its broad ditch and roughly square bailey enclosure to the east, was probably the site of the manor which was held by Ulfac under Edward the Confessor and which had passed to Osbern FitzRichard by the time of Domesday. The Old Church, originally dedicated to St Giles and later to St Mary, is located within the bailey enclosure, and its features indicate a late Saxon or early Norman origin. Documentary sources refer to a moated stone house known as Camp House, which would have replaced the original structure on the motte. Its occupants were probably responsible for the addition of the Old Church's west tower in the 16th century. The Old Church was replaced by a new church 50m to the west in the 1860s, but remained roofed until c.1890, and the last service was in the 1950s. The ground level around the ruin has been raised by centuries of burials, and although the graveyard is still in use the ruins themselves are in the care of the Secretary of State. The remains of the motte and bailey castle include an earthen motte mound west of the new church, which is circular in plan with a maximum diameter of 30m. Its sides rise up to 2m to a flat top around 22m in diameter. The summit of the mound has a broad shallow scoop suggestive of early investigation of the site, and within it is a long low mound which extends for roughly 7m from the east side of th

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.