Dunmow Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Great Dunmow.
In the historic county of Essex.
Modern Authority of Essex.
1974 county of Essex.
Medieval County of Essex.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL629229
Latitude 51.88139° Longitude 0.36605°

Dunmow Castle has been described as a Uncertain although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Robert FitzWalter, surety baron of Magna Carta, is sometime described as lord of Dunmow Castle. There is no remains or tradition of a castle at Great Dunmow, although it is a major crossing point of the River Chelmer. Fitzwalter was lord of Dunmow and the possibility of a castle at this significant tactical and tenurial location can not be entirely dismissed although nothing remains. The medieval church of St Mary the Virgin is north of the town in an area called Church End which suggest that if a castle existed it may not have been by the church.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 1999, Great Dunmow Historic Town Assessment Report (Essex County Council) (no mention) Download copy

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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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