Coventry Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Red Ditch

In the civil parish of Coventry.
In the historic county of Warwickshire.
Modern Authority of Coventry.
1974 county of West Midlands.
Medieval County of Warwickshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP33597895
Latitude 52.40726° Longitude -1.50703°

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

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of Coventry Castle. A castle existed in Coventry by the mid 12th century, and possibly earlier. In 1147, when Ranulf, 2nd Earl of Chester besieged the town, the King's men withdrew to the castle, and following the lifting of the siege, it is said that King Stephen destroyed the castle. However, it must have been repairable since it is mentioned, as a viable fortification, in 1182, 1200 and 1208. It is possible that the Red Ditch, a previously unexplained earthwork, may be the southern and western defence perimeter of the bailey. Excavations discovered late 12th century pottery in the primary fill of the ditch, but there is no conclusive proof that it was part of the bailey. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 869495.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MCT2047; MCT645.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  Rob Orland, Historic Coventy
Books
- Soden, Iain, 2005, Coventry: The Hidden History p. 43
  McGrory, David, 2003, A History of Coventry (Phillimore & Co Ltd)
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 256 (mention)
  Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p. 40
  Salter, Mike, 1992, Castles and Moated Mansions of Warwickshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 27
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 485
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 216
  Lancaster, J.C., 1975, 'Coventry' in Lobel, M.D. (ed) The Atlas of Historic Towns Vol. 2 (London: Scolar Press/Historic Towns Trust) online copy
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 160
  Stephens, W.B. (ed), 1969, VCH Warwickshire Vol. 8 p. 18 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 2 (London) p. 371-5 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Chatwin, P.B., 1928, Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society transactions Vol. 53
  Webster, L.E. and Cherry, J., 1972, 'Medieval Britain in 1971' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 16 p. 183 download copy
  1975, Medieval Archaeology Vol. 19 p. 274 download copy
  Youngs, S.M. and Clark, J., 1982, 'Medieval Britain in 1981' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 26 p. 212 download copy
  Coates, B. and Rylett, M., 1986, West Midlands Archaeology CBA Regional Group 8 Vol. 29 p. 71
  Chatwin, P.B., 1947-8, 'Castles in Warwickshire' Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Vol. 67 p. 6-7
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Sewell, R.C. (ed), 1846, Gesta Stephani, Regis Anglorum et Ducis Normannorum p. 125 online copy (The newer edition and translation by Potter, K.R. (ed), 1976 (2edn), Gesta Stephani (Oxford University Press) should be consulted for serious study. See also Speight, S., 2000, 'Castle Warfare in the Gesta Stephani' , Château Gaillard Vol. 19 see online transcription)
  Dibben, A.A. (ed), 1969, Coventry City Charters (Coventry Corporation) p. 7
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Dugdale, Wm., 1656, The Antiquities of Warwickshire (Thomas Warren) p. 101 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Fradley, Michael, 2011, The Old in the New: Urban Castle Imposition in Anglo-Norman England, AD1050-1150 (University of Exeter PhD Thesis) available via EThOS
  James Greig, 1989, The medieval site at Coventry, Bayley Lane: An Assessment of the potential of the site for work on Environmental Archaeology, and in particular Archaeobitony

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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.

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