Dymock Castle Tump (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Dimoc; Castletump; Aylesmore

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO71162934
Latitude 51.96175° Longitude -2.42098°

Dymock Castle Tump has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The motte and bailey castle known as Castle Tump survives well as an impressive monument. Motte and bailey castles such as this proliferated after the Norman Conquest, and their distribution marks the progress of the Norman campaigns in the years after the Conquest. In addition, the earthworks of the castle will contain archaeological information and environmental evidence relating to its construction, the way of life of the inhabitants, and will preserve evidence of changes in the use of the site over time.
The monument includes a motte and bailey castle situated on high ground, known as Castle Tump. The castle was granted temporarily to William de Braose between 1148 and 1154 by Roger, Earl of Hereford. The motte was considered to be a meeting place for Botloes Hundred. The visible remains include the large mound of the motte, with the flattened area of the bailey surrounding it and extending to the south. The motte stands to about 14m, and has a flattened top about 8m in diameter. There are no signs of any structures on top of the mound, although these will survive as buried features. About 6m from the base of the motte on its north side is a bank generally about 1m high, but rising to 2m high in places, which now forms a field boundary. This was the boundary of the bailey on this side. The bailey follows the field boundary around to the south shelving off sharply beyond this. On the south side the change in levels between the bailey and the land outside is about 2.5m, and the bailey appears to have been terraced. It is reported that a double bank on the line of the bailey was removed in 1946-47. About 5m from the base of the motte on its north west side is a pond 15m long, 3m wide and about 0.7m deep, thought to be spring fed, which may be the remains of the moat which would have encircled the motte. (Scheduling Report)

it is said that one of the Bohuns, earls of Hereford, built a castle here; but there is no vestiges remaining, except the castle-rock and the castle-tump. The tump is a round mount on the borders of the parish next to Newent, thrown up by hands, with an area at top, by such too small for a building of any great strength. (Rudder)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1016762, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 28863
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1224398
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 113377.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 387.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Gloucestershire and Bristol (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 82 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 181
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 226
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 180
  Gethyn Jones, J.E., 1966, Dymock Down the Ages (Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester) p. 157
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Rudder, S., 1779, A new history of Gloucestershire p. 409 online copy (large file)
Periodical Articles
- Walker, D., 1991, 'Gloucestershire Castles' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 109 p. 15 online copy
  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
  Brown, R. Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' The English Historical Review Vol. 74 p. 249-280 (Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 90-121) view online copy (subscription required)
  1944/46, Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 8 p. 185

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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