Soudley Camp (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
East Dean

In the civil parish of Ruspidge And Soudley.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO66161058
Latitude 51.79284° Longitude -2.49204°

Soudley Camp has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Soudley Camp consists of an enclosed area of not more than one-eighth of an acre situated on the end of a ridge. The defences on the north and west consist of a bank of great strength with an outer ditch. On the south side the escarpment of the hill forms a natural defence and on the east there is only a slight bank (Witts).
A small level topped projection, triangular in shape, 150 ft long with a strong bank and ditch on the west. The other sides have steep natural defence. The gap in the bank seems to be modern or at least not original.
The small area enclosed and the massive bank, maximum 13ft high from the bottom of the ditch, suggest a medieval rather than an IA origin, and I have catalogued it as a castle (Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments).
This earthwork has the appearance of a small IA promontory fort. It is roughly triangular and occupies the end of a spur. The western and wider end is protected by a very large bank and ditch which is IA in character and has an entrance in the centre, the NE and SE sides are protected by precipitous natural sloues. The site overlooks the junction of three valleys (F1 ANK 28-MAY-70).
D J C King is authoritative on castles but the identification of this earthwork as medieval is rather conjectural. The only artificial defence to be seen is the rampart cutting off the end of the spur and this is generally 2.0m high with a 1.0m deep outer ditch. It has more of an IA appearance than a medieval one, where a defensive bank or wall would normally be carried right round the perimeter irrespective of any natural defence.
The central simple gap in the rampart has been defaced by modern dumping but is almost certainly an original feature. Excavation is necessary for certain classification but on balance an IA origin seems more likely (F2 NVQ 08-JUN-70).
SO 6614 1058. Investigation of molehills at Soudley camp produced 5 pieces of Romano-British Severn Valley Ware pottery, several pieces of haematite and bloomery slag, charcoal and a flint flake (Walters). (PastScape)

Soudley Camp (SAM59), a small promontory fort of indeterminate date, Lower Soudley. Possibly an Iron Age promontory fort or defended medieval site. (Hoyle 2008)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005564, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number gc59
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 111775.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 444.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- The Megalithic Portal
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Gloucestershire and Bristol (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 32
  Alan Saville (ed), 1984, Archaeology in Gloucestershire from the earliest hunters to the industrial age: essays dedicated to Helen O'Neil and the late Elsie Clifford p. 165
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 181
  Hart, Cyril, 1967, Archaeology in Dean p. 53
  Burrow, Edward J., 1919, The Ancient Entrenchments and Camps of Gloucestershire (Cheltenham and London) p. 132-3
  Witts, G.B., 1883, Archaeological Handbook of the County of Gloucester (Cheltenham) p. 46 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Walters, B., 1987, 'The new regard of the Forest of Dean' Journal of the Forest of Dean Local History Society Vol. 3 p. 78
  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
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Playne, F.G., 1871-6, Cotteswold Naturalists Field Club Proceedings Vol. 6 p. 235
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Hoyle, Jon, 2008, The Forest of Dean Gloucestershire Archaeological Survey (Gloucestershire County Council) Vol. 2 p. 102 online 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	Scheduling
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