Week Orchard (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Week St Mary.
In the historic county of Cornwall.
Modern Authority of Cornwall.
1974 county of Cornwall.
Medieval County of Cornwall.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS23460035
Latitude 50.77610° Longitude -4.50489°

Week Orchard has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Comments

Now a small hamlet but, as settlement is often dispersed in Cornwall, could still have been a sub-manorial centre, although the parochial centre is Week St Mary, where a castle exists. The field investigator recommended an earthwork and geophysical survey and pending this, which may never actually happen. The location, air photo and given description suggests this is unlikely to have been anything other than a farmstead. A similar dubious earthwork at Woolston, a mile north, was also described as a possible motte by the same field investigator at the same time.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 912733.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 170576.

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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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