New Moat Castle

New Moat Motte is a well-preserved ditched motte with ytraces of the ditch that once surrounded its bailey within the small settlement of New Moat in Pembrokeshire. It is clear from the nuclear nature of the settlement that it was a plantation settlement, most likely dating to the resettlement of Flemings by King Henry I in the early 12th century. The monument is largely in a field which is crossed by a public footpath, and the ditched motte is covers with trees.

The motte measures about 40 metres across at the base and half that at the summit, and rises about 5 metres above the ambient ground levels, and in the 19th century the ditch was filled with water. The bailey is roughly oval in shape with the motte midway along the long east side, and the ditch can clearly be seen on LIDAR imagery; the enclosed area is about 60 metres from east to west and 145 from north to south, although the northern end is now built over.

By 1200 the settlement of New Moat was well-established with burgesses and a gate to the east which may have opened into the castle bailey, and at this date it was granted to Pill Priory by the Bishop of St Davids, who must have founded the castle and permitted their agent to live there. It grew to the point that it was granted a twice yearly fair in 1291, and had 42 burgesses in 1342, but after this entered a period of decline. By this time the Scourfield family held the manor, and continued to do so into the 1th century, but after the Black Death it never recovered its former prosperity.

RCAHMW Coflein Database Entry