Staunton Coleford Castle Field (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
The Castle Meadow; Castle ditch

In the civil parish of Staunton Coleford.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO549125
Latitude 51.80931° Longitude -2.65555°

Staunton Coleford Castle Field has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

(Area SO 550125) The site (possibly moated) of the manor-house of Staunton lies in a field called "the Castle Meadow" 100 yards SW of Staunton church. The field is rectangular in shape and is bounded on the SW side by a deep ditch. By the time of Elizabeth the buildings were in ruins and by the mid-19th century nothing was visible above ground. Excavations in 1882 revealed animal bones, sherds of coarse pottery, some small pieces of "brass trellis" and a piece of worked stone possibly part of a column (TBGAS 1881-2: Maclean 1882-3).
Area SO 549125 The site occurs on a gentle S-facing slope. There are no traces of any building within Castle Meadow and the ditch on the SW side is a hollow-way carrying a farm track. Local enquiries elicited no further information (F1 FKB 10-OCT-70).
This site was surveyed from aerial photographs at 1:10,000 scale as part of the English Heritage: Gloucestershire NMP project. No obvious remains of the manor house described by the previous authorities could be detected, but immediately to the south of the site of the house the faint earthwork remains of up to four parallel banks or slight terraces were detected. These could be found continuing in the next field to the west where a ditch was also recorded running parallel to the banks. This ditch appeared to lead from the site of Brindsey's Well. It is possible that these features are associated with the site or perhaps represent the remains of Medieval or Post Medieval garden features (APs). (PastScape)

Comments

Slight earthworks of probably moated manor house site associated with 'castle' field name. Nothing to suggest this manor house was significantly defended or particularly grand in architectural style. Staunton was a bailiwick of the Forest of Dean and the castle name may have originated from this being the administrative centre of that bailiwick rather than from the usual manorial administrative function. It is possible some other bailiwicks of the Forest had centres with 'castle' names; see Mosleyescastel and Seynteleyscastel.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 109737.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6041; 26280.

Books
- Currie, C.R.J. and Herbert, N.M. (eds), 1996, VCH Gloucestershire Vol. 5 p. 272- online transcription
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., 1882-3, 'History of the Manor and Advowson of Staunton, in the Forest of Dean' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 7 p. 227 online copy
  1881-2, 'Transactions at Staunton and Newland' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 6 p. 359 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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