Staines Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Penton Ditch

In the civil parish of Staines.
In the historic county of Surrey.
Modern Authority of Surrey.
1974 county of Surrey.
Medieval County of Surrey.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ033714
Latitude 51.43258° Longitude -0.51434°

Staines Town Defences has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

It is said that Staines was once surrounded by a ditch; but if this ever was the case, very scanty traces of it remain, except in what is known as Penton Ditch (Walford). Penton Ditch has not been located either from field enquiries or from an inspection of the 1st edition O.S. 6" 1865-70 (F1 ASP 14-APR-60). (PastScape)

In the decayed old town a series of ditches dug along the southern river frontage may have assisted the defence of Stana from Vikings and others (Jones)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 394793.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2868.

Books
- Jones, P. with Poulton, R., 2010, Roman and medieval Staines: the development of the town (SpoilHeap Monograph 2) Abstract and digital supplement
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 262
  Walford, E., 1883, Greater London (Cassell) Vol. 1 p. 188 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  1984, Joint Publication of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society and the Surrey Archaeological Society Vol. 22 p. 129
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Surrey County Council, 2006, Extensive Urban Survey - Surrey (English Heritage) Download 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.

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.

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