Mount Hill was a medieval castle in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, of which the earthworks still largely remain.
History
The castle was probably built in the late 11th or early 12th century, in the decades following the Norman Conquest of England, probably by William Lovet or one of his family. The castle probably occupied a pre-existing Anglo-Saxon manorial centre at what was then the heart of the manor, close to the local church.
The castle was a motte and bailey design, resembling a figure-of-eight. The motte today is 30m by 15m across and 5m high, occupying the western half of the site, protected by an 8m wide, 3m deep ditch. The motte would have been topped by a timber tower and palisades, and entered from the north, where a causeway crossed the defences. The eastern bailey is around 40m across, protected by a ditch linked to the motte; a causeway giving access to the motte.
Mount Hill was soon abandoned, however, and the earthworks were used for pasture, the motte becoming covered in trees.
George Brooks acquired the castle and the wider estate when he married Anne Fisher in 1789. His son, John Brooks, extensively developed the manor grounds, creating garden features and landscaping during the 1820s and 1830s. John redeveloped the motte, building a viewing tower or summer house on top of it, infilling part of the bailey ditch and inserting an ice house into the side of the earthworks.
After the construction of the Midland Railway in 1870, the commercial centre of Flitwick moved closer to the new railway station in the north-east of the town. The area surrounding the castle was turned into housing in the 20th century. The viewing tower has been demolished and the remaining earthworks are protected under UK law as a Schedule Monument.
Attribution
This article includes an image of Mount Hill from the Geograph website, author Rob Farrow, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.