Lydbury North; The Firs (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO351860
Latitude 52.46863° Longitude -2.95604°

Lydbury North; The Firs has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, Low score as one of 133 Moated sites. Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, Low score as one of 43 Motte castles. At the house called The Firs at Lydbury North (near church) there is a moat (Bird A J. 1966. Map annotation by OS Correspondent) The Firs (SA 13631) is situated on a mound with depressions on the N and W side but these depressions could not be positively identified as the remains of a moat. (OS FI 1974) A C17 timber framed house (SA 13631) sits on a rectangular raised mound c 2m above surrounding level. No trace of any moat ditch can be traced, except for a slight depression on the N side of the mound. This must remain a doubtful moated site (M Watson FI 1980). (Shropshire HER)

Comments

Jackson writes possible motte. King writes probably a barrow. Presumably King has mistaken this with another site in Lydbury North. The doubtful moat is located in centre of village and by church so is possibly a castle site although the manorial centre for the large manor of Lydbury North was Bishops Castle. The lord of the manor was the Bishop of Hereford and his bailiff must have had a house here acting as the centre for the administration of the village which may be this site built on a raised earthen platform but not fortified.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1175729
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 107015.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 02981.

Books
- Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 108
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 36
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 386
  Eyton, R.W., 1860, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 11 p. 194- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Watson, M.D., 1987, 'Gazetteer of Moated Sites in Shropshire' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 65 p. 6
  1980, Moated Sites Research Group Report Vol. 7 p. 51
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1970, 'Castles in Wales and the Marches (Additions and corrections to lists published in 1963 and 1967)' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 119 p. 119-124

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio