Witham Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Wulvesford; Withambury; Burgate Field; Rivenhall End; Chippinghill; Clipping Hill Camp

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

OS Map Grid Reference: TL821142
Latitude 51.79647° Longitude 0.63858°

Witham Town Defences has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are uncertain remains.

Description

Witham burh was founded by Edward the elder in 912. Three sites have been suggested as the site: Chipping Hill Camp (TL819151); Wulvesford (TL821142); Burgate Field (Rivenhall End, TL838164). The first has long been associated with the site of the burh, but recent research suggests it is the least likely location. Wulvesford is a curvilinear enclosure which enclosed the Mediaeval town created by the Knight's Templars. It enclosed 27 hectares. Strategically it is a better candidate than Chipping Hill Camp, since it lies across London-Colchester Road. The location makes sense as an offensive earthwork of the campaign of 912, but it is clear that if ever it was intended to become an urban centre, it failed. Burgate Field is a rectangular enclosure adjacent to the London-Colchester Roman Road, enclosing 18 hectares. It is suggested that this was the intended site of the urban centre, which for unknown reasons failed, and probably soon after it was laid out since Witham never had a mint, unlike most of the burhs which were extant in Athelstan's reign (925-39). (PastScape)

A.D. 913: After this, in the summer, betwixt gangdays and midsummer, went King Edward with some of his force into Essex, to Maldon; and encamped there the while that men built and fortified the town of Witham. (ASC)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1125133; 381097; .
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 8108; 8109; 8166; 14045.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 157 (mention)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 264
  Medlycott, M., 1999, Witham Historic Town Assessment Report
  Rodwell, Warwick, 1993, The origins and early development of Witham, Essex: a study in settlement and fortification, prehistoric to medieval (Oxbow monographs 26) p. 46-8, 76-82
  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
  Petchey, M.R., 1980, 'The archaeology of medieval Essex towns' in Buckley, D.G. (ed), Archaeology in Essex to AD 1500 (CBA Research Report 34) p. 113-17 online copy
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 138
  Gould, Chalkley, 1903, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Doubleday, Arthur and Page, Wm (eds), VCH Essex Vol. 1 p. 288-9 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  Spurrell, F.C.J., 1887, 'Withambury' Essex Naturalist Vol. 1 p. 19-22 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Ingram, James, (ed) 1912, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Everyman Press, London) AD913 view online transcription (Ingram's translation and notes date from 1823. More recent translations of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles should be consulted for serious study)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 1999, Witham Historic Town Assessment Report (Essex County Council) 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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio