Wilderley Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Picklescott

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO42049996
Latitude 52.59434° Longitude -2.85705°

Wilderley Hill has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

possible ringwork destroyed in early C20. (Jackson 1988)

An earthwork of oval plan lies on the eastwood slope of Wilderley Hill. It measures 175ft by 135ft and is enclosed by a bank and ditch and counterscarp bank, being best preserved on the north where the bank rises 2ft above the interior and drops 5ft into the ditch. Only a third of the counterscarp bank survives, 1ft high, and the whole of the earthworks have been destroyed on the SE, leaving only a faint trace of their former course. (Possibly a ring-work castle, though not listed by Hogg and King, or by King and Alcock).
This earthwork has been destroyed, probably during afforestation of the area some 50-60 years ago. The site is indicated by a faint, unsurveyable rise of ground, the area of which approximates roughly with that of the former earthwork (F1 ASP 30-NOV-72). (PastScape)

The monument includes the remains of a small Iron Age enclosed farmstead situated on the gentle south east facing slope of Wilderley Hill. The farmstead enclosure is well defined, roughly circular in plan, with an overall external diameter of 60m and an interior area c.42m in diameter. The visible earthworks include a substantial perimeter bank averaging 5m wide and 1.1m high with an external ditch 3.3m wide and 0.8m deep. Traces of an external counterscarp bank can be recognised around the south western quarter of the monument, standing up to 0.2m high. The main bank and ditch is continuous around the uphill side of the enclosure, providing shelter from the rising ground to the north west and some protection from water draining off the hillslope. The bank and ditch are interrupted in the south eastern, downslope quarter, where no trace of either can be recognised. This may represent the position of the original entrance to the enclosure. The interior of the enclosure follows the natural slope of the land over most of its area, however, slight evidence of levelling in the south west and north west quadrants, may represent the sites of original buildings. (EH Scheduling record)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010722, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 19157
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 109195.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00216.

Books
- Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 45
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 379-80 (Plan)
  Cobbold, E.S., 1904, in Campbell-Hyslop and Cobbold (eds), Church Stretton: Some Results of Local Scientific Research (Shrewsbury) Vol. 3 p. 8-10
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 1994, Scheduling Papers (Revision, 14/12/1994)
  Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, 1983, Scheduled Monument Report on SAM 15525

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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.

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.
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