Eaton Socon Castle Hills is the site of an 11th century castle near to St Neots and Tempsford in Bedfordshire. Only the earthworks now survive.
History
Eaton Socon was an important administrative centre during the Anglo-Saxon period, and was the main manor of Ulmar of Easton Socon, a thegn of King Edward. His residence probably lay under what is now the north bailey, next to an Anglo-Saxon church, since destroyed, and may have been protected by a horse-shoe ditch. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, Eudo Dapifer, the son of Hubert de Rie one of William’s inner circle, acquired the manor and built up further landholdings around the region.
Eudo probably constructed the castle on top of the former Anglo-Saxon centre, a common feature of early Norman castle construction, and may have reused the existing horse-shoe shaped ditch around the site. The castle overlooked the River Ouse to the east, on top of a low bluff close to the river bank.
The castle comprised two rectangular wards, separated by a ditch and surrounded by the horse-shoe shaped ditch, between 3-4 m wide. The southern ward was on slightly higher ground, roughly 30 m across in each direction, with a ditch and bank on the north, west and southern sides. The northern ward is 55 m by 20 m across with a 12 m high rampart on the north and west sides. The site may have resembled the nearby Burwell and Rampton castles.
The castle was probably not have been occupied for long. In 1120, Eudo died and the castle passed to the Beauchamp family. It may have seen service in the civil war of the 1140s and have been destroyed by forces loyal to King Stephen, and there is little archaeological evidence of any occupation after the mid-12th century and only passing reference in documents. A windmill was built in the southern ward later in the medieval period, of which the earthwork base still remains in the form of a low mound. By the 16th century, the antiquarian John Leland noted that only traces of a castle remained on the site.
Archaeological excavations in 1949 to 1950 uncovered at least 40 Anglo-Saxon burials in the northern ward, many of whom had signs of having died violently, probably in the 9th century. The remaining earthworks are protected under UK law as a Scheduled Monument.
Bibliography
- Page, W. (ed) (1912) “Parishes: Eaton Socon,” Victoria County History of Bedfordshire Vol. 3 pp. 189-202.
- Lethbridge, T. C. and C. T. Tebbutt (1951) “Excavations on the castle site known as “The Hillings” at Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire,” Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society Vol. 45 pp. 48-61.