Welshampton mound (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Welch Hampton

In the civil parish of Welshampton And Lyneal.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ43573499
Latitude 52.90951° Longitude -2.84055°

Welshampton mound has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Bronze Age bowl barrow surviving as an earthwork and the site of second possible barrow, destroyed in 1873. The surviving barrow is 20 meters in diameter and 2.3 meters high. On the east side are traces of a ditch 10 meters wide and 0.4 meters deep. The surviving barrow is scheduled. (PastScape)

At the east end of Welsh Hampton village is still a small mound supposed to have been a barrow, a second one within 50 yds of it having been removed in 1873 to make way for a house. This mound, 12 feet in height above the road, consisted almost entirely of gravel and no finds of any kind were made (annotated map record; Lee 1874; 1877). Auden mentions a mound in "Moat Meadow" at Welshampton, supposed locally to be the site of a "Castle" presumably the one shown on APs at SJ 43583499 (5).
A round barrow, situated at SJ 43573499 upon the top of a pasture-covered ridge, has a diameter of 20.0m and a height of 2.2m. A shallow ditch on the E side has been reduced and spread by ploughing, and is 10.0m in width, 0.4m in depth. The feature is known to the farm-owner Mr Lloyd, as "The Round Barrow". About 40.0m to the E of the barrow at SJ 43613501, a house, probably that erected in 1873 stands upon a raised area of levelled, made-up ground, which could well be the base of a second, destroyed mound, probably another round barrow.
Several local enquiries of elderly villagers and of a farmer failed to locate 'Moat Meadow' and there appears to be no local tradition of the site of a 'castle' at Welshampton (F1 ASP 20-JUL-73). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1016668, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 32293
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 68632.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01008.

Books
- Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 73 (reject)
  Eyton, R.W., 1860, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 10 p. 92- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Auden, JE, 1929-30, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 12 p. 317
  Lee, H.M., 1877, 'British mounds at Welshampton' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 32 p. 73 online copy
  Lee, H.M., 1874, 'The course of Watling Street between Uriconium and Deva' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 29 p. 207 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.

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