Seynteleyscastel, Ruspidge (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Saintlow; Turner's Tump; Seinteleye

In the civil parish of Ruspidge And Soudley.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO629109
Latitude 51.79629° Longitude -2.53861°

Seynteleyscastel, Ruspidge has been described as a probable Uncertain.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Isolated location within the Forest of Dean. The name Saintlow may be derived from the Saxon Hlaw (burial mound). Seinteleye is a named balliua (Balliwick) of the forest and probably the site of a residence of the forester with responsibility for that part of the forest. Such a residence had some of the functions of a castle, being centres for the administration of forest law and will have had some stabling and possibly even a small prison but would not have been large. It may even have been marked in someway to reflect its status as a place of the kings law such as by having some castle like feature like being built on or beside a mound. Medieval use of the term castle was more varied and nuanced than many authors suggest. Turner's Tump is marked on the 1878 OS map associated with a building marked as 'Lincoln House' and an 'Old Quarry' but nothing is no visible on the air photo except trees. Gatehouse does not accept King's dismissal of this as a natural feature and does think there was a structure, associated with the royal forest, in this approximate area although not one usual called a castle by modern writers.
See also Mosleyescastel, another possible foresters 'castle'.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 7404.

Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 185 (reject)
  Hart, Cyril, 1967, Archaeology in Dean p. 56
Periodical Articles
- Rawes, B., 1977, 'A Check List of Castles and other Fortified Sites of Medieval Date in Gloucestershire' Glevensis Vol. 11 p. 39-41 online copy
  Maclean, J., 1889-90, 'A perambulation of the Forest of Dene, in the county of Gloucester, 10th Edw. I. (1281-2)' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 14 p 356-69 esp 361 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- TNA E 32/31, mm. 8-14 online reference
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Hoyle, Jon, 2008, The Forest of Dean Gloucestershire Archaeological Survey (Gloucestershire County Council) Vol. 2 p. 115 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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