Birtley Earthworks, Lingen (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Newton

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO368694
Latitude 52.31922° Longitude -2.92831°

Birtley Earthworks, Lingen has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Members of the archaeology section of the Woolhope Club visited the site on 14/04/91. The site is described as being a low mound, scarped on three sides, eroded on the northern side with pools on the west and south sides. There are further humps and bumps in the area and an old mill near by. The site would need further investigating to confirm it as a castle. (Herefordshire SMR)

A low mound on the north side of the minor road to Knighton, in the garden of a stone-built house, may be a former castle. It is scarped on three sides and has pools on the west and south. A curved bank to the south of the road with a former long pool could represent the position of the bailey. The defences could all have been wet. It is perhaps more likely to be a defensive house site. (Shoesmith)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 106380.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 33820; 22969; 21888.

Books
- Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 275
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 13
Periodical Articles
- 1992, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 58 p. 35
  Halliwell, P. (ed), 1992, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 57 p. 22-3 (plan)
  Watkins, A., 1933, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 38 p. 342

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
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