Therfield Village Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Therfield.
In the historic county of Hertfordshire.
Modern Authority of Hertfordshire.
1974 county of Hertfordshire.
Medieval County of Hertfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL333371
Latitude 52.01884° Longitude -0.05659°

Therfield Village Defences has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Therfield: Motte and bailey with traces of fortified village enclosure west of parish church (RCHM Herts, p. 218; Renn, p. 321) (Bond 2001)

Mount, with Attached Baileys, forming a Fortified Village, N.W. of the church, standing about 520 ft. above O.D.
Detailed Description—The Mount, which shows no traces of masonry, stands 5 ft. above the ditch, and is 57 ft. in diameter at the base. It is defended on the N. by a dry ditch, from which branches another ditch, also dry, embracing the Bailey on the W.; the bailey, including the ditch, covers one acre. There are slight traces of an inner rampart on the S. and W. sides, and the S.E. arm of the bailey is formed by a long pond. Other Enclosures: there are the remains of a larger enclosure on the S., and traces of a rampart and ditch, which run N.W. from the N.W. arm of the bailey. Entrances: the position of the entrance is not certain, but there is a track through the N.W. corner of the bailey.
Dimensions—Greatest length through mount and bailey N.E. to S.W., 270 ft. Greatest width, N.W. to S.E., 180 ft. (RCHME 1910)

Another bank and ditch run northward from the salient for 100 yards before turning eastward for 200 yards (on air photographes). A ditch was found under the north wall of the church in 1878, and these features suggest an early village fortification. (Renn 1971)

Comments

Earthworks, including ditches, platforms and quarry pits, almost certainly the remains of medieval settlement at Therfield.
The strange shape of the earthworks does not suggest house platforms; they may have more to do with the motte and bailey. See 22 for settlement of Therfield, 4129 for possible manorial site, 4194 for ancient fishpond and 9682 for ditches.
The supposed circuit of the village defences is fragmentary (a section to the north of the castle and some further earthworks in a field between Pedlars Lane, The Causeway and Mill Lane possible being the northern boundary (see Scheduling map)). If the ditch ran north of the C15 church this seemingly would place the church outside the supposed circuit, although the earlier church could have been slightly further north and within the possible circuit. However the reported location of that ditch does not easily marry with the surviving earthworks. There are some suggestions that the area may have suffered from drainage problems (a large number of ponds, some local 'ditch' place-names, a road called The Causeway) so some of the earthworks may be slightly larger than usual medieval drainage ditches. The actual evidence for defensive earthworks surrounding the village is slight.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1009245, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 20672
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1659.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 79, 259
  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. 222
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 321
  Renn, D.F., 1971, Medieval Castles in Hertfordshire (Chichester: Phillimore) p. 25
  Page, Wm (ed), 1912, VCH Hertfordshire Vol. 3 p. 276online transcription
  RCHME, 1910, An inventory of the historical monuments in Hertfordshire (London: HMSO) p. 218 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 2004, ''The Rich Man in his Castle, The Poor Man at His Gate': Castle Baileys and Settlement Patterns in Norman England' Château Gaillard Vol. 21 p. 25-36
  Bond J., 2001, 'Earthen Castles, Outer Enclosures and the Earthworks at Ascott d'Oilly Castle, Oxfordshire' Oxoniensia Vol. 46 p. 67-8 (Appendix: Earthwork castles with attached village enclosures) 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	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