Caldewelle Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Calderfield Farm; Caldewalle

In the civil parish of Walsall.
In the historic county of Staffordshire.
Modern Authority of Walsall.
1974 county of West Midlands.
Medieval County of Staffordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP03539903
Latitude 52.58930° Longitude -1.94927°

Caldewelle Hall has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Sub-rectangular moat by Calderfields Farm with an area of around 1.2ha. Large retaining bank on outside of north and west sides. Moat fed by stream which enters at north and leaves from south west. Aerial photographs show two arms of outer enclosure extending to east of moat (HER13583) and area of ridge and furrow (13582). Site seriously damaged in 1990 by tipping over platform and bulldozing of part of earthwork. According to Rushall MS, written in the 15th century, Sir Hugh de Boweles "bilte and repairide a mansion at Caldewalle and made a moot abowte seyd mansion." Sir Hugh died before 1271-2. (Wolverhampton and Walsall HER)

A sub-circular homestead moat, now partly marshy, partly dry, situated in a low lying position in pasture fields upon a very gentle south west facing slope. The moat measures, overall, 65.0 m north east - south west by 55.0 m transversely. The arms average 11.0 m in width and 1.0 m in depth. An outer retaining bank on the north west and south west sides is 7.0 m in width and up to 0.7 m in height. The moat is fed by a stream which enters at the north and leaves from the south west. There are no visible building remains on the island which is under grass. The original causewayed entrance is on the south east side. (PastScape ref. Field Investigators Comments F3 ASP 01-JUL-76)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 329445.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2686.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 1997, Castles and Moated Mansions of Staffordshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 15
  Lynam, Charles, 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm. (ed), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 1 p. 368 (homestead moat) online copy
  Willmore, F.W., 1892, Records of Rushall with a transcript of the old parish registers p. 16-17
  Willmore, Frederic W., 1887, A history of Walsall and its neighbourhood (W.H. Robinson) p. 67-8, 254 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Larkham, P.J., 1983, Moated Sites Research Group Vol. 10 p. 31
  Larkham, P.J., 1982-3, 'Moated Sites in South Staffordshire' Transactions of South Staffordshire Archaeology and History Society Vol. 24 p. 8-65
  Whiston, J.W., 1981-2, 'The Rushall Psalter' Transactions of South Staffordshire Archaeology and History Society Vol. 23 p. 89-91
  Hammer, M.E., 1974, 'The Moated Sites of Staffordshire' Staffordshire Archaeology Vol. 3 p. 40

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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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