Almeley Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Almley; Almeleia

In the civil parish of Almeley.
In the historic county of Herefordshire.
Modern Authority of Herefordshire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Herefordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO33235142
Latitude 52.15717° Longitude -2.97729°

Almeley Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Remains of a Motte and bailey, extant by 1216 . The motte is 35m in diameter and 8m high. The ditch is from 1.3m deep on the south side to 2.5m deep on the north side below the bailey, and is 8m in width. The bailey is some 50m square and is bounded by a ditch on the east side, 12m in width and 2m in depth. there are also the remains of fishponds. (PastScape)

Beside the church of Almeley is a grass-grown mound, upon which the keep of a medieval castle once stood. The circular motte is 35m in diameter and 8m in height from the base of the encircling ditch. The ditch is 1.3m deep on the south side and 2.5m deep on the north side below the bailey. The ditch is 8m in width. The bailey is 50m square and bounded by a ditch on the east side, 12m in width and 2m in depth. The ditch formerly continued around the north side but has since been filled in to form a graveyard extension of the nearby church. The west side of the bailey is bounded artificial steepening of the natural slopes, presenting a bank 4.5m in height. Traces of an inner bank can be seen on the north-west side of the bailey, and the original causewayed entrance appears to have been in the east side. To the south-west of the castle motte are two rectangular depressions, which are thought to have been fishponds supplying the castle. Roughly 50m south-west of the motte, traces of two medieval fishponds can be seen. These fishponds - now dry - are at the foot of a ridge by a stream. One fishpond measures 42m x 20m and the other 50m x 18m. The whole site of the ancient castle is now under pasture. (Herefordshire Through Time)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1001752, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number he78
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 106311.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1703.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Herefordshire Through Time
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
Books
- Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 50-1
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 12
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 103 (slight)
  Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 1
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 202
  1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 19
  Wilkinson, Fredrick, 1973, Castles of England (London) p. 19 (list of minor sites)
  RCHME, 1934, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 3: north-west p. 6 No. 3 (plan) online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Gould, I. Chalkley, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Herefordshire Vol. 1 p. 232 (plan)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 94-5 online copy
  Robinson, C.J., 1869, The Castles of Herefordshire and Their Lords (London: Longman) p. 3-5 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1995, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 64 p. 26-7 (plan)
  Sterling Brown, R., 1988, 'Preliminary Results of Castle Survey' Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 50 p. 41
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124
  Warner, Rev R Hyett, 1904, 'Almeley Castle and Church' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club p. 235-7
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 10 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 8 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