Wollaston Mount (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Woolaston

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ32891229
Latitude 52.70405° Longitude -2.99448°

Wollaston Mount has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Although the eastern and southern sides of the Wollaston motte and bailey castle immediately west of St John's Church have been disturbed by the constuction of buildings since the 18th century, it survives well and is a good example of this class of monument. The remains of the structures that stood on the motte and within the bailey are expected to survive, which together with the associated artefacts and organic remains will provide valuable evidence about the activities and the lifestyle of the inhabitants. Organic remains surviving under the motte and the bailey banks, and within the ditches, will also provide information about the changes to the local environment and the use of the land before and after the castle was constructed.
The monument remains a prominent feature within the landscape and its importance is further enhanced by its proximity to the motte castle near Bretchel.
The monument includes the surviving extent of the earthwork and buried remains of a motte and bailey castle, situated in an area of gently undulating land at the top of a south west facing slope. From this location there are commanding views of the surrounding area in all directions. The castle lies 860m north west of another motte castle to the south west of Bretchel, which is the subject of a separate scheduling.
The flat-topped, steep sided oval motte measures approximately 30m by 34m at its base, 9m by 12m across the top and stands about 8m high. It is surrounded by a ditch, the northern half of which survives as a visible earthwork up to 1m deep. A cottage, which is not included in the scheduling, has been inserted into the tail of the southern part of the motte and the ditch. The bailey lies immediately north of the ditch encircling the motte. Internally, it is approximately 60m long and up to 30m wide and is defined on the eastern side by a scarp 1.2m high and on the north western and south western sides by low banks up to 0.5m high. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch approximately 3m wide, surrounds these banks. It has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1019015, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 32329
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 66551.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01080.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
Books
- Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 186-7
  Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 88 (slight)
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 67
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 432 (Wollaston No. 1)
  Rees, W., 1933, Historical map of South Wales and the Borders in the C14
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 401-2 (plan)
  Eyton, R.W., 1858, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 7 p. 113- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- King, D.J.C. and Spurgeon, C.J., 1965, 'The mottes in the Vale of Montgomery' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 114 p. 81-2
  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
  Chitty, Lily, 1949, 'Subsidiary Castle Sites West of Shrewsbury' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society Vol. 53 p. 83-90
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, nd, Scheduled Monument Report on SAM 14322

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.
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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.

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.
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