Bungay Town Defence (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Bungay.
In the historic county of Suffolk.
Modern Authority of Suffolk.
1974 county of Suffolk.
Medieval County of Suffolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TM337897
Latitude 52.45550° Longitude 1.43792°

Bungay Town Defence has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Scarped and banked defence of probable Saxon foundation.

A deep ditch extended E and W to two bends in the river Waveney, cutting off Outney Common from the town of Bungay and materially strengthening the northern defences of the castle. It has been suggested that the ditch might be a Roman work, but there is no positive evidence of this, and it may have been dug by the Bigots, who used the materials obtained to raise the huge barriers of earth around their castle. Bungay was granted to Roger Bigot soon after Domesday by the Conqueror.(Suckling; Field Investigators Comments–F1 FDC 01-APR-68) An anonymous and undated map in Bungay Museum (approx. 1/2500) - reproduced in Bungay Castle Guide shows this earthwork as "Tower Ditch" and traces it south-east and south-west to encircle the probable Medieval town (line superimposed on 6" field sheet). The topographical situation would support this classification (i.e. for the whole of the distance it is shown as running along the high crop above a flood plain) rather than the suggestion of Suckling. Modern development has now removed all evidence of the work.(Wade, 1984) A trial trench revealed the town ditch which measures 8m wide and 4m deep, and was backfilled in the late C13 or C14. (Martin et al, 1984). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006063, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number sf13
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 391898.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) BUN 040.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 157 (mention)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 264
  Wade, Keith, and Dymond, David, 1999 (3edn), 'Smaller Medieval Towns' in Dymond, David and Martin, Edward (eds) An Historical Atlas of Suffolk (Lavenham) p. 162-3
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 461
  Scarfe, N., 1972, The Suffolk Landscape p. 109
  Suckling, A., 1846, History and Antiquities of Suffolk (London) Vol. 1 p. 131 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Keiron Heard, 2011, 'Archaeology in Suffolk 2010' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 42.3 p. 363 online copy
  Linzi Everett, 2009, 'Archaeology in Suffolk 2008' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 42.1 p. 69 (slight) online copy
  Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  2000, 'Archaeology in Suffolk 1999' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 39.4 p. 514-15 online copy
  Penn, K., 1998, 'Bungay and its Early History' Quarterly Journal of the Norfolk Archaeology and Historical Research Group Vol. 29 p. 3-7
  Wade, K.R. in Youngs, S.M., Clark, J. and Barry, T.B., 1984, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1983' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 28 p. 241 download copy
  Martin, E., Plouviez, J. and Ross, H., 1984, 'Archaeology in Suffolk 1983' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 35.4 p. 327 online copy
  Braun, H, 1935, 'Bungay Castle, report on the excavations' Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. 22.2 p. 201-23 online copy
Guidebooks
- Braun, Hugh, 1991, Bungay Castle Historical Notes and Account of the Excavations (Bungay Castle Trust) (Mainly a reprint of Braun's 1934 and 1935 articles)

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.

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