Site record MDR22864 - Possible mott and bailey castle, Repton

During their excavtions in the 1970s and 1980s around Repton church the Biddles encountered a large ditch to the north of the chancel. Initially this was believed to have been some kind of dock for Viking longboats, but the discovery of quantities of C12th pot and other material from the C12th and the absence of any earlier material that was not residual led to a reapraisal. The Biddles then concluded that what they had found was the defensive ditch of a motte and bailey. They suggested that it was a part of a chain of castles held by Ranulf, 1st Earl of Chester, during the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. They believed that it had been deliberately destroyed during the conflict.