Chepstow Park Wood Moated Site

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument comprises the remains of a moated hunting lodge associated with the New or Chepstow Park, a hunting reserve of the lordship of Striguil or Chepstow, now known as Chepstow Park Wood. The Park was surrounded by a wall, probably built for the earl of Worcester in the early 17th century although the first reference to the medieval park pale (fence), a gate and the construction of a hut within it occur between 1283-1300 under Roger Bigod III. The site occupies a central position within the wood, which is now heavily planted with post WWII forestry but there were formerly extensive views south towards Chepstow. It consists of a circular moated platform almost 50m in diameter enclosed by a low bank on the N, a partly wet ditch 3m wide and up to 2m deep and beyond this a substantial circular outer bank. The outer bank measures approximately 3m wide across its level summit, which may have formed a path, and retains the remains of a battered and faceted drystone revetment wall on its inner face to the E and SW. In the base of the ditch to the SE is a small vaulted chamber measuring 2x1.3m,which probably covered a spring. The earthworks have been damaged towards the southern side by a modern access track and drainage. Central to the almost level interior are the remains of a long rectangular building of well-coursed, mortared sandstone and conglomerate blocks, divided into three rooms, the whole measuring approximately 16m long by 4m wide (SE-NW). Its external walls have largely been buried in rubble but the featureless internal faces stand to around 2m high. An opening cut into the southern wall of the central room gives access to a smaller, more crudely built drystone structure built within its ruins with an entrance to the NE and pieces of modern debris visible in the rubble; this seals of blocked doorway in the NE wall of the southern room of the earlier building. It has been suggested that this was a 19th century shooting box, and there is some ornamental planting in the vicinity, or a WWI observation post associated with the later track cutting the earthworks to the SE.

The monument is of national importance as an rare example of an early post-medieval hunting lodge set within an ornamental moated enclosure that may occupy the site and incorporate elements of its documented medieval predecessor. The layout of the earthwork is very similar to that of the presumably modified motte by Pen-y-clawwd Court near Abergavenny. It is likely to retain intact buried structural remains and associated archaeological deposits relating to its construction, use and development, including artefactual and environmental evidence of contemporary material culture and the landscape in which it was set. As such the monument has high potential to enhance our knowledge of medieval and later hunting lodges and associated domestic practices and material culture. The boundaries of the documented Chepstow Park with which it was associated are intact and it forms an important element of the wider medieval and post-medieval landscape of the important Marcher lordship of Striguil or Chepstow.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.