Blakeney, Awre (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Awre.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO672071
Latitude 51.76151° Longitude -2.47650°

Blakeney, Awre has been described as a Uncertain although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Blakeney, Awre, SO 6706. Remains seen in Churchcroft field in C18 suggest a castle rather than church. (Rawes ref. Rudge)

Near Blakeney, in a ground called Churchcroft, were found, some years since, considerable ruins under ground, consisting of four semicircular walls, twelve or fifteen feet in diameter,- the ends of which crossed each other, with two square rooms irregularly connected with the other building, in one of which were bricks or tiles for pavement, from seven to fourteen inches square. The search was occasioned by a traditional story, that the old church was intended to be built there, but that what was done in the day was removed in the night to the present situation. (Rudge 1803)

Comments

A suggested castle site. Gatehouse has been unable to more closely locate this site. All Saints Church is at SO672071 (given as the map reference for reference only) but this is early C18 although the village has a medieval layout and the church may be on the site of an earlier church. However, Churchcroft may have been some distance from the church. There have been finds of Roman pottery in the area and the report, which mentions bricks, may refer to a Roman site rather than to a medieval building.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6358.

Books
- Rudge, T., 1803, History of Gloucestershire (Gloucester) Vol. 2 p. 118 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Rawes, B., 1977, 'A Check List of Castles and other Fortified Sites of Medieval Date in Gloucestershire' Glevensis Vol. 11 p. 39-41 online copy

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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.
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