In its designation as a scheduled monument, Historic England describes it as having been a motte and fortified manor, with a moated site and five fishponds.

[1] The manors of Pinxton and South Normanton were granted by the De Alfreton family to Ralph le Poer (who was still living in 1242).

[3] Around 1340, John le Wyne was involved in a legal battle to recover fines levied upon him by the officers of Sherwood Forest for grazing cattle in Fulwood, just over the Nottinghamshire border.

The report concluded that the general condition of the site was "unsatisfactory" due to threats from unconstrained vegetation growth, although it noted that the overall position was improving.

[9] The Pinxton site consists of a motte about 3 metres (9.8 ft) high; perimeter earthworks; some evidence, likely of a later date, of the walls and floors of a number of small buildings; the remains of a moat; and five fish ponds.

Historic England suggests that the motte was the keep of a "12th century earthwork castle" and that the site was subsequently repurposed as a "medieval fortified manor".

The motte would have been encircled by an outer bailey, with ancillary buildings including pens for livestock, and the whole surrounded by a defensive ditch and a palisade.

[7] Such castles were favoured by the Normans, as their use of natural, readily available materials – earth, timber, and some stone – and their simple design allowed them to be constructed quickly and cheaply by a relatively unskilled labour force.

[a][b][12][13] Archaeological evidence suggests that later builders reused the motte and some of its surrounding features as part of a defensive system around a medieval fortified manor house.

[6] G. E. Monk described excavations conducted by the Pinxton Archaeological Society in 1950 and 1951, remarking that Stevenson's 1918 description was "somewhat inconclusive".

[14] In 1959, an inspector described the excavations by the Pinxton Archaeological Society as "not of a scientific nature", and also remarked that Sir Mortimer Wheeler looked at some potsherds during a casual visit to the site, identifying them as 14th century.