Monument record 0001200000 - DANES CAMP, GREAT HAMPDEN

Dimensions - Radius 1900 Height 0274 cm
Plan Form - CIRCULAR
SCHEDULED. MOATED MOUND. CAUSEWAYS NW & SE SIDES WHICH LOOK ORIGINAL. 1FT HOLE IN TOP OF MOUND (1971)(B1).
EXCAVATED BY B BURGESS: HOLE DUG DOWN THROUGH CENTRE. FEW PIECES OF TILE FOUND. BURGESS BELIEVED POSSIBLE DEFENCE AGAINST DANES WITH STOCKADE WORKS ON TOP (B2).
Reinterpretation of mound, possibly prospect mound for for Gt Hambledon House (B9).
Field survey by D Went (B10).



A: (SP 84750204) Moated Mound (NR) B: (SP 85550202) and C: (SP 85610199) Moated Mounds (NR) (B11).
There are two large moated mounds with causeway across the moats from NW to SE on the line of Grim's Ditch and at its SE extremity. The larger mound is 13 ft high and 90 ft diamer at the base. About half a mile to the west in Hampden Park is a third similar mound (B3). It has a small bailey (cropmark) (6). (Nothing visible on available AP's 1948 1961). No conclusive evidence as to the origin of the mounds exists, although the one in the Park (A) was opened by B Burgess (B2) in 1855, when he had a hole about three yards square by twelve feet deep dug in the centre of the mound. This only yielded several pieces of tile below the turf and a further piece at a depth of about seven feet. Burgess discounts the theory that this mound had been constructed for a windmill. The two in Oaken Grove (B & C) are scheduled by MPBW (B12) as barrows, an opinion shared by Dyer (B13) who considers them probably Saxon. Renn (B5) lists them as temporary castles but omits them from his later work (B5). Crawford (B4) although not expressing a view as to their use discounts them as prehistoric. They would certainly appear to be later than Grim's Ditch over which they lay, and which has been cut away to raise them. The Oaken Grove mounds have been opened at some time, one being almost hollowed out, the other having been opened by a cross-cut (B2).
Three flat-topped, dry ditched mounds, each with two opposed causeways on the NW and SE sides respectively. All three are much the same size being some 33.0m in diameter overall, with the mound rising some 3.5m from the present bottom of the ditch. The two most easterly mounds (B and C) are only 65.0m apart (centre to centre), and occupy the line of Grims Ditch which has seemingly been destroyed in their construction. Each mound has a large excavation hollow in the centre. The third mound (A), the best preserved of the group, occupies an isolated position some 800.0m to the west. These mounds are unlikely to be associated with Grims Ditch, and if it is Saxon then these mounds are certainly post Saxon. They are also unlikely to be sepulchral on grounds of size and appearance alone. A close grouping such as this is unlikely for mottes, but it is feasible for windmill mounds, which is their most likely purpose, especially as the cross-cut excavation in one of the Oaken Grove mounds (B2) might imply the removal of post-mill sleeper beams. Resurveyed at 1:2500 (B14).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.