Great Howle Camp, Walford on Wye (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO61142021
Latitude 51.87914° Longitude -2.56573°

Great Howle Camp, Walford on Wye has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Oval enclosure. Indications of ploughed out ditch and strength of bank where best preserved suggest poss remains of a ring motte. Howle belonged in C15 to Walwyns of Hellens. Members of the archaeology section of the Woolhope Club visited the site on 18/11/79. The rampart or bank is continuous around its circuit. What appears to be a possible opening in the centre of each of the two shorter sides is actually only a reduction in the height of the bank. Ploughing has reduced any traces of an encircling ditch. (Derived from Herefordshire SMR)

The earthwork remains of the probable Medieval ringwork enclosure described by the previous authorities were seen centred at SO 6114 2021 and mapped at 1:10,000 scale from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Gloucestershire NMP project. The site appears as a sub-rectangular bank defined enclosure measuring approximately 38m x 50m. No trace of any further internal or external features could be detected from the aerial photographs. (PastScape ref. Vertical aerial photograph reference number NMR OS/667 0425-6 18-MAR-1966)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1001745, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number he66
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 111925.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 5581.

Books
- Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 273
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 34
  Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 20
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 213 (possible)
  RCHME, 1932, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 2: east p. xxvi (plan), 200 no. 13 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Attfield, C.E. (ed), 1980, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 37 p. 6
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127

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.
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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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