Littledean Camp (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Little Dean Camp; Old Castle of Dene

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO67661349
Latitude 51.81910° Longitude -2.47057°

Littledean Camp has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The Norman ring-work known as Littledean Camp was excavated by Dr C Scott-Garrett and the Forest of Dean Local History Society in 1958. A rough floor of sandstone pitching was found in the interior, and an isolated part of the surounding bank to the west of the entrance was thought to have formed the base for a wooden watch-tower. The paucity of finds, which included an iron key dated to the late 11th or early 12th century and pottery of the first half of the 12th century, suggested a short period of occupation, and the site was taken to be that of the "Old Castle of Dene" mentioned in charters of Henry II (Renn: Scott-Garett).
A ring motte, consisting of a strong circular bank of stone and earth, and an outer ditch. The interior, which is slightly above the natural ground level, shows no trace of any structure and is grass covered. The earthwork is approximately 70.0m in overall diameter. The bank averages 2.3m high measured from the interior, and is from 4.0m to 5.0m high measured from the bottom of the ditch. The ditch averages 10.0m wide at the top and is from 0.7m to 2.0m deep.
In the south-east quadrant there is a 4.0m wide gap in the ban and a causeway 9.0m wide at the bottom and 4.0m wide at the top, across the ditch. The earthwork is grass and tree covered and is in good condition. Slight mutilation in the northeast quadrant of the ditch is the result of earth digging. The motte is situated upon a hill-top with a commanding view of the Severn Valley (F1 NVQ 08-APR-58). (PastScape)

Comments

May be the 'old castle of Dene' mentioned in 1153-4, although this has also been identified as Stow Green, Newnham or, most probably, the Iron Age hill fort of Welshbury.
Now isolated from settlement. However village nucleation in this area may have been quite late and the site may represent a dispersed settlement site from before the consolidation of settlement in the valley below the hill. This, along with Davidson's theory on the late date of the introduction of mottes, may well support a C11 date for this site.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004863, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number gc47
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 111768.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 48.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  Paul Martin Remfry
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Gloucestershire and Bristol (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 22
  Currie, C.R.J. and Herbert, N.M. (eds), 1996, VCH Gloucestershire Vol. 5 p. 159 online transcription
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 182, 184, 558
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 227
  Burrow, Edward J., 1919, The Ancient Entrenchments and Camps of Gloucestershire (Cheltenham and London) p. 104-5
  Nicholls, H.G., 1858, The Forest of Dean; An Historical and Descriptive Account (London: John Murray) p. 178 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Walker, D., 1991, 'Gloucestershire Castles' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 109 p. 5-23 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
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Scott-Garrett, C., 1958, 'Littledean Camp' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 77 p. 48-60 online copy
  Playne, 1877, Cotteswold Naturalists Field Club Vol. 6 p. 234
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Conway Davies, J. (ed.), 1960, The Cartae Antiquae, Rolls 11-20 (Pipe Roll Society Publications 71) p. 133

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