Castle Bromwich Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Pimple Hill; The Tump; The Tumulus

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SP14199005
Latitude 52.50816° Longitude -1.79235°

Castle Bromwich Castle Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The remains of a motte and bailey mostly destroyed by the construction of the M6 motorway. A much mutilated, reduced and mis-shapen motte remains, measuring, at the base, 48m east to west, by 30m north to south and 4.5m in height. The summit of the motte measures 17m by 12m. A short stretch of bailey ditch 18m in length and 10m in width was excavated by Birmingham Museum. These excavations also revealed evidence for a timber structure on top of the motte and C12-C13 buildings inside the bailey along with a C16 house. Evidence for Medieval and Roman settlement was found. (PastScape)

Castle Bromwich. According to Dugdale the first mention of the de Bromwich family is in 1168, but the castle, the motte and bailey, with of course its timber tower, is no doubt earlier than that. The motte is about 25 ft. across the top and 20 to 25 ft. high above the bailey level. A bank on the east side may be the remains of the enclosing earthwork of the bailey, but evidently considerable alterations have been made, much modifying the original plan. On the south-east side of the motte there is a deep trench. This may be the site of the later Manor House which took the place of the timber tower on the motte. (PastScape–ref. Chatwin)

WARWICKSHIRE: CASTLE BROMWICH (SP 143901). Excavations by W .J. Ford for the Birmingham City Museum and M.P.B.W. on the motte and bailey revealed that each of the bailey ditches, which enclosed an area of 2 .S acres, ended at a timber-reverted causeway upon which a planked and railed structure had been built. The rampart also had a timber facing. Inside the bailey were a 16th-century house and two rzth- to 13th-century buildings, running N.-S. and containing hearths. A worn cobbled surface ran around the counterscarp of the motte ditch. The bailey was extended by ditches running southward, destroying part of the causeway, which yielded no material later than the 14th century. A Romano-British timber structure and pits were found beneath the E. ramparts.
There was evidence of a timber structure upon the summit of the motte which was surrounded by a ditch. The mound was constructed upon an earlier defensive ditch associated with a stepped and revetted rampart. This in turn was preceded by a palisaded enclosure, the trench of which was secondary to two occupation-layers. Extra-mural buildings of early medieval date were discovered to the W. on the line of an old road leading down to the ford across the R. Tame. (Med. Arch. 1971)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005906, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wm17
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 332117.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 263 (slight)
  Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p. 35
  Salter, Mike, 1992, Castles and Moated Mansions of Warwickshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 24
  Higham, R. and Barker, P., 1992, Timber Castles (Batsford) p. 49, 296-8, 358
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 481-2
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 195
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 353
  1971, Archaeological Excavations 1970 (HMSO) p. 83
  Salzman, L.F. (ed), 1947, VCH Warwickshire Vol. 4 p. 44 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Willoughby Gardner, 1904, 'Ancient Defensive Earthworks' in Doubleday, H.A. and Page, Wm (eds), VCH Warwickshire Vol. 1 p. 365-6 online copy
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 347-8 online copy
  Chattock, C., 1884, Antiquities (Birmingham) p. 205, 287-9 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Rigold, S.E., 1975, 'Structural aspects of medieval timber bridges' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 19 p. 80 online copy
  Ford, W.J. 1971, 'Castle Bromwich Castle' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 128 p. 214-15
  Wilson, D.M. and Moorhouse, S., 1971, Medieval Archaeology Vol. 15 p. 148-9 download copy
  Ford, B., 1969 p. 34-5, CBA Group 8: West Midlands Research Committees reports Vol. 12 p. 34-5
  Chatwin, P.B., 1947-8, 'Castles in Warwickshire' Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Vol. 67 p. 9-10
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 213 online copy
  Burgess, J.T., 1873, 'Ancient British Remains and Earthworks in the Forest of Arden' Journal of the British Archaeological Association p. 39-42 online copy
  Burgess, 1872, Birmingham and Midlands Institute Archaeology Section p. 88
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Dugdale, Wm., 1656, The Antiquities of Warwickshire (Thomas Warren) p. 647-48 online copy

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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.

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