SDO10455 - Christchurch Castle, Christchurch, Dorset; report on survey work July-October 2004

The Christchurch Antiquarians (TCA) conducted a geophysical survey on Christchurch Castle during August, September and October 2003. The results were interpreted as evidence for a ditch or moat around the castle motte. The following year TCA invited students at Bournemouth University to conduct further geophysical surveys of the site in order to provide data of a higher resolution to substantiate or refute the interpretations from 2003. Resistivity and ground penetrating radar were used on 24/5/2004 to survey a small area immediately SE of the castle motte and a part of Church Hatch gardens further to the SE, leading to the mill stream. The results suggested that there was an infilled ditch or moat surrounding the base of the motte. Furthermore another ditch appeared to branch off from this moat and head in an easterly direction towards the mill stream. This latter ditch might represent part of a moat around the southern side of the castle bailey or an alteration to the civil war defences of the castle. TCA also conducted a plane table and contour survey of the public gardens to the SE of the castle in order to see if there was any sign of the bailey ditch and a possible associated inner bank. The survey revealed a regular rectilinear arrangement of low features which were interpreted as part of a formal garden identified on an 1st edition OS map of 1870. TCA also continued the catalogueing and indexing of documentary sources pertaining to the castle during 2004.