Colebatch Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Colebatch.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO32018710
Latitude 52.47758° Longitude -3.00246°

Colebatch Motte has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The motte castle at Colebatch survives well and is a good example of its class. It will retain archaeological material relating to its construction and occupation. Environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which it was constructed will be preserved sealed on the old land surface beneath the motte and in the ditch fill. Such motte castles, when considered as a single site, or as part of a broader medieval landscape, provide valuable information concerning the settlement pattern, economy and social structure of the countryside during the medieval period.
The monument includes the remains of a small motte castle situated in the valley bottom on the west side of a tributary of the River Kemp in the village of Colebatch. It includes a well defined steep sided mound with a base diameter of 22m rising 5.5m high to a rounded summit with a diameter of 5m. The surrounding ditch, from which material would have been quarried for the construction of the mound, has been almost completely filled in but remains visible as a slight surface depression up to 2.5m wide around the south west quarter of the motte and will be preserved as a buried feature of similar proportions around the remaining sides of the motte. (Scheduling Report)

Small castle mount at Colebatch, 19 ft high, surrounded by a ditch now almost levelled. Also listed (incorrectly) under Tumuli (VCH 1908).
Visited 12.5.1929 - certainly a small motte commanding local valleys, partially removed on the west side (Annotated Record Map L F Chitty).
A small steep-sided motte with base diameter of 24.0m, height of 5.5m and summit diameter of 5.0m. There are now no traces of a surrounding ditch. The motte slopes are covered with small trees and two firs grow upon the summit (F1 ASP 06-DEC-73). (PastScape)

Comments

Colebatch was a township with the extensive manor of Lydbury North held by the bishop of Hereford. Does Colebatch represent the site of house of one of the eight Radmans (riders) recorded in Domesday? The tenant of Colebatch almost certainly owed some sort of service to the bishop, possibly including castle-guard at Bishop's Castle and the motte here, possibly surmounted by a timber tower, probably mostly represents that status. There is no evidence of a bailey and, presumably, the actual house and farm building were undefended but stood adjacent.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1012854, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 19186
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 107121.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00146.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Secret Shropshire
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 65
  Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 87 (slight)
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 219 (slight)
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 21
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 421
  Bird, A.J., 1977, History on the Ground (University of Wales Press) p. 100
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 383, 411 (plan)
  Eyton, R.W., 1860, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 11 p. 223- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 1995, Scheduling Papers (Affirmation, 19/05/1995)
  Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, 1986, Scheduled Monument Report on SAM 2009

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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.
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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.

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