Cannock Castle Ring (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Cannock Wood.
In the historic county of Staffordshire.
Modern Authority of Staffordshire.
1974 county of Staffordshire.
Medieval County of Staffordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK04431282
Latitude 52.71384° Longitude -1.93704°

Cannock Castle Ring has been described as a probable Palace, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

'Foundations of building' are shown on the plan of Castle Ring Camp (VCH, 1908). They can be associated with those mentioned by Cockin which have been variously described as the remains of a hunting lodge or the site of the Castle of Beaudesert. Molyneux refers to remains of a medieval structure which he excavated within Castle Ring. On a rectangular platform made in the gentle eastern slope of this part of the plateau-fort (I.A.) are the stone footings 1.5 m. thick, of a substantial building. Its ground-plan is that of a probable 12/13th century hall, orientated north to south, with a screen-passage near the south end. The foundations of the Medieval lodge, centred at SK 0435 1290, within Castle Ring Hillfort were surveyed at 1:200 by RCHME in 1988. The stone foundations measure 20.6m by 11.5m externally. The outer edge of the building is defined by a scarp that represents the base of an excavation trench and in places by a chamfered stone plinth. The building comprises two (or possibly three) cells separated by a narrow passage way. The southernmost cell measuring 3.1m north-south and 8.2m transversely is the smaller of the two, and is clearly defined by a combination of insitu stones and low scarps. The position of a former doorway in the north wall of the cell is discernible, and at the east end of the passage way is a carefully worked door jam. The northernmost cell is considerably larger, measuring 11m north-south and 8.2m transversely. It is also defined by a small scarp and, in places, by insitu stones. Along the central axis of the room are three sub-rectangular depressions, the middle one of which contains a chamfered sandstone pillar base. There is considerable disturbance around the exterior of the building due largely to previous excavation of the foundations; however it is possible that the disturbance is partly indicative of further building remains. A resistivity survey of the area carried out in 1987 failed to provide any further detail on the building. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1014687, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 21635
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 304769; 304764; 1393681.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00025.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Staffordshire Past-Track for old photographs.
Books
- Pevsner, N., 1974, Buildings of England: Staffordshire (London, Penguin) p. 93
  Greenslade, M.W., 1967, in Greenslade, M.W. and Jenkins, J.G. (eds), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 2 p. 338- (for history of Cannock Forest and Foresters)
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 907, 988-9
  Lynam, Charles, 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm. (ed), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 1 p. 336-8 (plan) online copy
  Shaw, Stebbing, 1798, The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (J.Nichols abd Son) (Republished 1976 by EP Publishing) Vol. 1 p. 40
Periodical Articles
- Palliser, D.M., 1972, 'Staffordshire Castles: A Provisional List' Staffordshire Archaeology Vol. 1 p. 5-8
  Forde-Johnston, J.1964, 'The Hillforts of Staffordshire' and 'Castle Ring' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 120 p. 262-3, 299-300 (prehistoric only) online copy
  Cockin, G.M., 1906, 'The Ancient Industries of Cannock Chase' Transactions of the Burton on Trent Natural History and Archaeologial Society Vol. 5.2 p. 127 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 211 online copy
  Duignan, W.H., 1884, 'On The King's house and The Priory at Radmore, on Cannock Chase' The Midland Antiquary Vol. 3 p. 58-66
  Molyneux, 1863, The Archaeological Journal Vol. 20 p. 198 (slight report of finds) online copy
Guidebooks
- Anon, 1983, The Iron Age Hill Fort of Castle Ring a guide and information leaflet (Cannock Chase District Council)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Wayne Cocroft Marcus Jecock and Robert Wilson-North RCHME: Staffordshire Hillforts Project 20/04/1988
  Strain, R., 1987, A Geophysical Survey of the Iron Age Hillfort of Castle Ring Staffordshire (Unpublished BA dissertation Leicester University)

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
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