Portchester Burghal Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Fareham.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Hampshire.
1974 county of Hampshire.
Medieval County of Hampshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU62480456
Latitude 50.83719° Longitude -1.11399°

Portchester Burghal Defences has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are major building remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The Saxon shore fort at Portchester is a well preserved example of its class. The entire defensive circuit survives with very little later modification. Within and around the fort there is significant evidence for its later use. The tower keep castle is an outstanding and well known example which demonstrates in its fabric a complex history of use and modification, while the 10th century defensive burh and the 12th century priory give the site an unusual dimension in terms of the range of uses to which it was put. Excavations over the years have demonstrated the extent to which remains of all aspects of its use and development survive. Both the shore fort and castle are in the care of the Secretary of State and are open to the public.
Excavations within the fort, primarily those carried out on behalf of the Society of Antiquaries between 1961 and 1979, have shown traces of timber buildings laid out beside a regular grid of streets and provided evidence of both civilian and military occupation up to the end of Roman Britain and beyond. The excavations have also shown evidence of settlement dating to the mid- fifth and to the seventh to ninth centuries AD. Sunken floored huts, timber houses and ancillary buildings were found, after which a break in occupation is marked by the extensive dumping of rubbish in the interior of the fort. In AD 904 Portchester was acquired by King Edward the Elder and became a defended burh. Within it excavations have shown buildings dating to the 10th and 11th centuries, including a large aisled hall, and a rectangular stone building around which a cemetery developed. The Watergate in the east wall was probably rebuilt before the Norman Conquest, with a gatehouse built in the southern half of the Roman opening. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1015698, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 26714
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1229190
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 238704.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 5851.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Anthony Bradshaw, 1999, The Burghal Hidage
Books
- Michael G Shapland, 2017, 'Anglo-Saxon towers of lordship and the origins of the castle in England' in Dawn M Hadley and Christopher Dyer, The Archaeology of the 11th Century Continuities and Transformations (Routledge) p. 104-119
  Mark Gardiner, 2017, 'Manorial farmsteads and the expression of lordship before and after the Norman Conquest' in Dawn M Hadley and Christopher Dyer, The Archaeology of the 11th Century Continuities and Transformations (Routledge) p. 88-103
  Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 120
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 23, 57, 216, 234, 257
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  Cunliffe, B.W., 1977, Excavations at Portchester Castle 3: Medieval, the outer bailey and its defences (London: Society of Antiquaries of London Research Report)
  Cunliffe, B.W., 1976, Excavations at Portchester Castle 2: Saxon (London: Society of Antiquaries of London Research Report)
Periodical Articles
- Hare, M., 1984, 'The Watergate at Portchester and the Anglo-Saxon porch at Titchfield: a re-consideration of the evidence' Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol. 40 p. 71–80
  Radford, C.A.R., 1970, 'The later pre-Conquest boroughs and their defences' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 14 p. 99-101 download copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dave Hopkins, 2004, Extensive Urban Survey - Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (English Heritage) Download 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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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