Castle Orchard (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Stourton With Gasper.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.
Medieval County of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST769319
Latitude 51.08595° Longitude -2.33117°

Castle Orchard has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Earthwork remains of a Motte and Bailey castle. The castle was excavated by Pitt-Rivers in 1879-80 when a quantity of Norman and Medieval pottery was found. Excavations also took place in 1939. (PastScape)
A very good example of a motte and bailey castle occupying the east end of a steep sided densely wooded spur. The motte has an uneven top resulting from excavations, particularly those of 1939 where the trenches are still open though in part collapsed. Such masonry as can be seen forms no intelligible plan. The bailey is to the west of the motte with a deep ditch cutting it off from the spur. In the south-east corner a quarried out platform seems to incorporate a building site but this platform may be of subsequent date and not connected with the fortifications. It now affords the only reasonable approach to the interior. There are no traces of bridge abutments at the ends of the bailey. Immediately north of the castle is a natural shelf, much lower than the spur. Part of this has been enclosed to form an outer ward, utilising a steep valley slope on the east and north east and constructing a bank and ditch along the north west to about the bailey ditch. The bank is now approximately 2.0m high and very spread, the outer ditch mostly completely silted, but 0.4m deep in two short sections. (PastScape–ref. Field Investigators Comments-F1 NVQ 10-JUN-70)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005639, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wi333
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 202574.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) ST73SE451.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 100
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 278 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 501
  Aston, M., 1982, 'The medieval pattern 1000-1500AD' in Aston, M. and Burrow, I. (eds), The Archaeology of Somerset: A Review to 1500 A.D. (Taunton: Somerset County Council) p. 125
  Pugh, R.B. and Crittall, Elizabeth (ed), 1957, VCH Wiltshire Vol. 1 Part 1 p. 269
  Bothamley, 1911, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Somerset Vol. 2 p. 513-8
  Kerslake, T' 1887, A Primaeval British Metropolis (Bristol)
  Pitt-Rivers, A.H.L.F., 1884, Report on Excavations at the Pen Pits, near Penselwood (London)
  Kerslake, T., 1882, Caer Pensauelcoit (London)
  (of the works by Kerslake, David King writes "These are eccentric works, involving a controversy with Lane-Fox (who is, of course, the person later and more generally known as Pitt-Rivers). Mr Kerslake was concerned to contend that the castle and the large area of millstone quarries known as the Pen Pits constituted an ancient British city: he carried on his argument in a pamphlet called The Liberty of Independent Historical Research (London, 1885), in which he disclaims any pretence at dating the actual castle (pp. 37-42)."
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 2000, 'Early Castles in the Medieval Landscape of Wiltshire' Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 93 p. 111-2 online copy
  1952, Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Vol. 96 p. 10
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 211 (mislocated in Somerset) online copy
  Winwood, H.H., 1884, 'The result of further excavations at PenPits' Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeology and Natural History Society Vol. 30 p. 149-53
  Lane-Fox, A.H. and others (Pitt-Rivers, A.L.), 1879, 'Report of Pen Pits Exploration Committee" Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeology and Natural History Society Vol. 25 p. 7-17
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 255 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 245 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 249 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 227 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 225 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 225 online copy

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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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