Wymondley Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Great Wymondley

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

OS Map Grid Reference: TL21512847
Latitude 51.94147° Longitude -0.23370°

Wymondley Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Great Wymondley Castle is a well-preserved example of a motte and bailey castle. It is unusual in its close association with a manorial enclosure, within which occupation evidence, integral to a full understanding of the monument, will survive. The monument will contain archaeological remains relating to the internal layout of the site and the economy of its inhabitants as well as environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed.
The monument includes Great Wymondley Castle, a motte and bailey castle, situated on level ground on the floodplain of the River Purwell. It comprises a large rectangular enclosure in the south-west corner of which there is a small moated motte and bailey. The motte measures c.2.5m in height by 28m in diameter at its base. The bailey, located south of the motte, is orientated NE to SW and measures about 25m by 28m. Surrounding the motte and bailey is a moat, now dry, which is c.2m in depth and c.10m in maximum width. The outer enclosure, which is considered to be manorial in origin, is marked by a bank and ditch extending from the moated motte and bailey. It is rectangular in shape and encloses an area c.175m north-south by c.100m east-west. The small cross ditch dividing the large enclosure is a modern field boundary. The site was partially excavated in 1882 when both Roman and medieval pottery were discovered. (Scheduling Report)

Two conjoining squarish enclosures of ditch and bank lie immediately east of the apsidal C12 church, with a small earthwork in the SW corner. 'Old pots and things' were found the tiny motte (?) was dug about 1882, but the main strength lies in the bailey (?) which has a disproportionately strong bank. (Renn 1971)

"Enclosure, of the mount and bailey type, immediately E of the churchyard, covers an area of 5 acres, the mount (1/4 acre in internal area) being in the SW corner" (RCHME).
The earthworks are of two dates and belong to two classes. They comprise of a small moated mound and bailey inserted into the SW corner of a larger roughly, rectangular earthwork. Although the mount has been much lowered, the bailey banks still remain. The small cross ditch dividing the large enclosure seems to be a modern field division (VCH 1908).
The earthworks comprise a motte and bailey with, attached on the east, enclosures which are probably manorial in origin (F1 BHS 26-NOV-70).
The earthworks of the castle are as described by previous authorities. The motte is covered by unmanaged scrubby vegetation, the field to the E. is under pasture. There are low unsurveyable (at 1:2500) earthworks in this field OS 5545 which may represent further subdivisions of the field and a low backscarp to the bailey ditch. The relationship between the castle and the two subrectangular enclosures is unclear, however their sharp form may indicate they are later than the castle (F2 WDC 27-JUN-90 RCHME Field investigation). (PastScape)

Comments

Salter, presumably working from the RCHME of 1910, suggests the rectangular enclosure is a Roman Settlement but the PastScape record appears to suggest the enclosure may post date the castle (possibly later medieval manorial works). There was a Roman settlement here but the earthworks may have nothing to do with it.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010761, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 20637
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 365088.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 34.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  Hertfordshire County Council
Books
- Oliver Creighton and Stephen Rippon, 2017, 'Conquest, colonisation and the countryside: archaeology and the mid-11th- to mid-12th-century rural landscape' in Dawn M Hadley and Christopher Dyer, The Archaeology of the 11th Century Continuities and Transformations (Routledge) p. 57-87
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 43
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 106 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 220
  Renn, D.F., 1971, Medieval Castles in Hertfordshire (Chichester: Phillimore) p. 26 (plan), 27
  Page, Wm (ed), 1912, VCH Hertfordshire Vol. 3 p. 182 online transcription
  RCHME, 1910, An inventory of the historical monuments in Hertfordshire (London: HMSO) p. 105-6 online transcription (plan)
  Montgomerie, 1908, Page, Wm (ed), VCH Hertfordshire Vol. 2 p. 119
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
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Braun, Hugh, 1938, 'Hertfordshire Castles' St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Transactions Vol. 5 p. 208
  1937, 'Excavations of an uncharted Romano-British occupation site at Great Wymondley' Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Vol. 10.1 p. 12
  Chalkley Gould, 1905, 'Wymondley Castle' Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Vol. 3.1 p. 10-11
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 317
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1909, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 4 p. 119 online copy

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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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