Castle Frome castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Castle Frome.
In the historic county of Herefordshire.
Modern Authority of Herefordshire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Herefordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO67094584
Latitude 52.10990° Longitude -2.48195°

Castle Frome castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Occupying a strong, wooded position south-west of Fromes Hill and 0.3km east of the church can be found a motte hidden by post-war forestry. This motte is 45m in diameter, rising 4m above the bailey. The motte has slight sinking to the top. Stone can be found in the structure and may indicate the presence of stone walls. The bailey has a deep ditch that surrounds the ringwork to the north, east and south. Entrance to the bailey was via a causeway across the ditch to the south. The general outline is visible on aerial photographs. These photographs show traces of two poorly-preserved baileys to the north and south. It is very likely that Castle Frome was a stronghold from which the estates of Walter de Lacy in the Frome Valley were controlled. This suggests that the castle was most probably built just after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It was in the King's control from 1155 to some time after 1216, when it was restored to the de Lacys. In 1244 Gilbert de Lacy borrowed £600 from Walter de Lacy, perhaps to begin a period of rebuilding at the castle. (Herefordshire Through Time)

Motte and Bailey 350 yds E of Castle Frome church (SO67084587). The motte is 60 yds in diameter and rises circa 14ft above the bailey; there is a slight sinking in the top. A scarp to the E and S probably indicates the outline of the bailey. Running along the SW of the motte is a sunken way partly protected by a rampart on the W side. In poor condition - site wooded. (PastScape ref. RCHME)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1001739, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number he58
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 112198.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 930.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Herefordshire Through Time
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 86
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 103 (slight)
  Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 2
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 203
  1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 38
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 193
  RCHME, 1932, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 2: east p. 49 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Gould, I. Chalkley, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Herefordshire Vol. 1 p. 225
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 103 (slight and as lost) online copy
  Robinson, C.J., 1869, The Castles of Herefordshire and Their Lords (London: Longman) p. 62-4 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 2004, 'Archaeology 2004, Report of Sectional Recorder' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 54 p. 115
  Halliwell, P.R. (ed), 1993, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 60 p. 7-8 (plan)
  Halliwell, P.R. (ed), 1993, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 59 p. 23-6
  Sterling Brown, R., 1988, 'Preliminary Results of Castle Survey' Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 50 p. 41
  Cohen, I., 1956, 'Archaeology, Report of Sectional Editor' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 35 p. 183
  1936, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club p. 183
  1894, 'Frome's Hill' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club p. 184
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Herefordshire Domesday (Balliol MS. 350) fol. 44 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio