Turret Castle, Huntington (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hell Wood

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO25895339
Latitude 52.17378° Longitude -3.08511°

Turret Castle, Huntington has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Motte and bailey surviving as earthworks. The site was mapped from aerial photographs (the motte was masked by trees). The motte is 7.2m high on the south west side and 6m high on on the north east side. The base diameter of the motte is 46m and the oval shaped flat summit is 25m by 22m. The bailey has a maximum length of 104m and a maximum width of 32m. (PastScape)

Remains of motte & bailey, the prox of this to Huntington Castle & known later occupation of latter seem to imply priority of date of Turret Castle. Occupies base of spur running out towards E, consists of circ motte with irreg shaped bailey to E. Motte c 50m diam & rises c9m above bottom of ditch between it & bailey. Bailey has remains of rampart & also ditch betw it & spur to E. Entrance on this side, poss that remainder of spur formed an outer enclosure. (RCHME) Motte & bailey. Thanks to the badgers that have a sett in the motte, part of the foundations of a wall betw 5-6' thick were exposed pointing to a shell keep. There are buried & part exposed lengths of curtain wall foundations all around the site. Part exposed foundations of a gatehouse to the smaller bailey on the point of the ridge. There do not appear to be any flanking towers, but on this strong ridge site not really necessary. This is an early castle C11-12. Thought to be the forerunner of Huntington, but no proof of this. (Stirling-Brown, 1988; HAN 1999) Ron Shoesmith has suggested the possible existence of the foundations of a curtain wall, which may be concealed by the bailey bank. Excavation would have to confirm this. (HAN 1999) (Herefordshire SMR)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1007314, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number he99
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 105021.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 945.

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. 170, 171
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 40
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 103 (slight)
  Stirling-Brown, R., 1989, Herefordshire Castles (privately published) p. 8
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 207
  1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 17
  RCHME, 1931, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 3: north-west p. 75-6 No. 3 (plan) online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Archaeological Research Section Woolhope NFC, 1999, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 70 p. 40, 48
  1997, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 67 p. 10 (plan)
  1996, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 66 (Hell Wood)
  Sterling Brown, R., 1988, 'Preliminary Results of Castle Survey' Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 50 p. 45
  1980, Herefordshire Archaeological News Vol. 37 p. 8-10
  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
  Renn, D.F., 1959, 'Mottes: a classification' Antiquity Vol. 33 p. 106-12 (listed as precursor to Huntington Castle)
  Marshall, G., 1940, 'Report of the second field meeting 1940: Huntington, near Kington, Hergest, Hergest Court and Moor Court' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 30 p. xlii-xlvi
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. 12 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 10 online copy
  Dalwood, H. and Bryant, V. (eds), 2005, The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 Download 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