Caus Town Defenses (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cause; Caurs; Chaus; Caws

In the civil parish of Westbury.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ338079
Latitude 52.66538° Longitude -2.97921°

Caus Town Defenses has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Deserted medieval borough which was established primarily to serve Caus Castle. Caus was probably in existence by 1200 when the grant of a weekly market was obtained. The borough was encircled with a wall and two gates before 1300 and adjoined Caus Castle to the north and west. After the Black Death Caus went into decay and the last mention of a tenanted house there was in 1614. The free Chapel of St Nicholas opposite the Castle gate was in use until the destruction of the castle in 1645. The Chapel of St Margaret was founded in 1272 and is last documented in 1447. The interior street between East Gate and Wallop Gate was in use as part of a field road in 1816. The 9 acre site was surveyed in 1971. (PastScape)

The borough of Caus lay within a rampart to the north and west of the castle. It was probably in existence by 1200 when the grant of a weekly market was obtained (VCH 1968, 310). The borough prospered in the 13th and early 14th centuries, as it was situated on a principal trade route to Wales, and at the centre of the rich agricultural valley of the river Rea. A fair was granted in 1248 and on Thomas Corbet's death in 1274 there were 28 burgages. In the record of taxation for 1292 there are the names of the chief taxors, the lord, his bailiff and the twelve jurors of the "town and castle of Caus" (Beresford 1988). By 1300 there were 34 burgages, and by 1349 there were 58 (VCH 1968, 310). At some time before 1300 the borough had been provided with a defensive wall. (Buteux 1996)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1020147, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 33848
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 925118.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00249; 05110.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 47
  Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 51-2
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 28, 64, 80, 217, 265
  Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 32
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 210 (mention)
  Higham, R. and Barker, P., 1992, Timber Castles (Batsford) p. 200, 237
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries)
  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. 2 p. 436
  Barley, M.W., 1975, 'Town Defences in England and Wales after 1066' in Barley (ed) The plans and topography of medieval towns in England and Wales (CBA Research Report 14) p. 57-71 download/view online
  Gaydon, A.T. (ed), 1968, VCH Shropshire Vol. 8 p. 295-332
  Beresford, Maurice, 1967, New towns of the Middle Ages: town plantation in England, Wales and Gascony (London: Lutterworth Press) p. 480-1
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
  Whitfield, J.R.W. (ed), 1951-53, 'Account of the lordship of Caus 1540' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society Vol. 54 p. 45-68, 327-37
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- E36/150 (Survey of 1521) (calendared in Brewer, J.S. (ed), 1867, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII Vol. 3 p. 509 No. 1286 online copy)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2001, Scheduling Papers (Revision, 18/09/2001)
  Buteux, V., 1996, Archaeological Assessment of Caus, Shropshire: The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey (Shropshire SMR) online copy
  Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, 1986, Scheduled Monument Report on SAM 21511

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.
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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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