Caple Tump, Kings Caple (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Capel Tump

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO55932880
Latitude 51.95593° Longitude -2.64270°

Caple Tump, Kings Caple has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a motte castle, situated on a low ridge just south of the main road through the village of King's Caple. The earthern motte mound is circular in plan, with a diameter of 35m, and is between 2.5 and 3.5 metres in height. Its low, flat top may suggest an earlier pallisade or shell keep on the motte summit, and there would have been ample room for structures. The castle is situated alongside an earlier Roman road. To the west of a motte, partly encased by the degraded rampart, are the remains of a stone well. (PastScape)

the earthwork and buried remains of a motte castle, situated on a low ridge just south of the main road through the village of King's Caple, and opposite St John's Church. The monument includes an earthen motte mound, circular in plan and with a diameter of 35m. The motte's steep sides rise 3.5m on the north side and 2.5m on the south side, to a flat top with a diameter of roughly 25m. The remains of a low earthen bank around the rim of the summit survive up to 4.5m in width and up to 1m high in places. This bank has been breached in four places where paths have been created on to the top of the mound. Only one of these represents the original access to the motte platform, the remainder are of more modern date. Material for the construction of the mound will have been obtained from a surrounding ditch, traces of which are visible as a slight depression roughly 8m wide on the south east side of the motte. Elsewhere the ditch has become completely infilled, but will survive below ground. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1014884, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 27524
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 109764.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 921.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Herefordshire Through Time
Books
- Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 189
  Phillips, Neil, 2005, Earthwork Castles of Gwent and Ergyng AD 1050-1250 (University of Wales) p. 216-17 Download from ADS
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 45
  Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 10
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 207
  1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 68
  RCHME, 1932, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 2: east p. 98 No. 2 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- 1992, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 58 p. 42
  Attfield, C E., 1986, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 45 p. 1, 9
  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

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.

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