Wigmore Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO41286906
Latitude 52.31655° Longitude -2.86276°

Wigmore Town Defences has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Linear ditch and bank aligned SW to NE followed by former field boundary. Bank on NW side when surveyed in 1930s, now ploughed out and survives as cropmark only. Interpreted as Town defences. Associated with documentary references from C14 survey of Wigmore Lordship which mention two long ditches "below the castle" worth 12 pence per year, actual function uncertain. Also interpreted as defences of an outer bailey of the castle, with parallel ditch and bank. (Herefordshire SMR)

Two parallel linear banks (HWCM 19424 and HWCM 19425) northeast of the castle were recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1886 and by RCHME (1934). These have been interpreted as a village enclosure (Renn 1973, 345-7; HWCM 7258), but their location on a steep hillside shows that this interpretation is unlikely; it is more likely that settlement was focused on the church, dated to the late 11th century. (Dalwood and Bryant)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 19425.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 266
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 215
  Atkin, C.W., 1954, 'Herefordshire' in H.C. Darby and I.B. Terrett, The Domesday Geography of Medieval England p. 104
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  Bond J., 2001, 'Earthen Castles, Outer Enclosures and the Earthworks at Ascott d'Oilly Castle, Oxfordshire' Oxoniensia Vol. 46 p. 65-6 (Appendix: Norman earthwork castles with failed towns in outer enclosures) online copy
  Redhead, N., 1990, 'Wigmore Castle - a resistivity survey of the outer bailey' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 46.3 p. 423-431
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 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 >		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