Botelers Castle, Oversley (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Arrow Motte

In the civil parish of Alcester.
In the historic county of Warwickshire.
Modern Authority of Warwickshire.
1974 county of Warwickshire.
Medieval County of Warwickshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP08375588
Latitude 52.20110° Longitude -1.87892°

Botelers Castle, Oversley has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

In 1086 Fulk held the manor of Oversley, but it later passed to Ralph de Boteler, who probably built a castle there making it his principal seat. A steep knoll overlooking the river Arrow is still known locally as 'Boteler's castle'. No sign of buildings on the obvious knoll at Boteler's castle. In the summer of 1934 Mr BW Davis trenched the top and sides of the hill. He discovered a considerable amount of pottery, roofing tiles, slates, but little stone and absolutely no trace of foundations. This suggests that the castle was timber and that no motte was formed as the natural escarpment was deemed sufficient. The ruins seen by Dugdale were probably of a later stone building. A rectangular castle mound in a commanding position with a ditch to the S. There are no indications of a building but coarse Medieval pottery was found over a wide area. The site has been under plough for many years and the mound is spread. There are two parallel banks. These appear to have been outworks of the castle forming two unusual baileys. Excavations in 1992 and 1993 revealed the existence of an attached ditched enclosure possibly a village defence and/or outer bailey. (Warwickshire HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005750, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wa74
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 328453.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 543.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
Books
- Oliver Creighton and Stephen Rippon, 2017, 'Conquest, colonisation and the countryside: archaeology and the mid-11th- to mid-12th-century rural landscape' in Dawn M Hadley and Christopher Dyer, The Archaeology of the 11th Century Continuities and Transformations (Routledge) p. 57-87
  David Jordan, David Haddon-Reece, and Alex Bayliss (eds), 1994, Radiocardon Dates from samples funded by English Heritage and dated before 1981 (London: English Heritage) p. 3 (HAR-2732 Human bone from associated cemetery dated as 975-1155) online copy
  Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p. 65
  Salter, Mike, 1992, Castles and Moated Mansions of Warwickshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 14
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 485
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 271 (Gives map ref. to modern Oversley Castle, not Arrow Motte)
  Salzman, L.F. (ed), 1945, VCH Warwickshire Vol. 3 p. 29 online transcription
  Stenton, F.M., 1932, First Century of English Feudalism (Oxford: Clarendon Press) p. 195-6
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 2004, ''The Rich Man in his Castle, The Poor Man at His Gate': Castle Baileys and Settlement Patterns in Norman England' Château Gaillard Vol. 21 p. 25-36
  Jones, C., Eyre-Morgan, G., Palmer, S. and Palmer, N., 1997, 'Excavations in the outer enclosure of Boteler's Castle, Oversley, Alcester, 1992-3' Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Vol. 101 p. 1-98
  Chatwin, P.B., 1947-8, 'Castles in Warwickshire' Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Vol. 67 p. 17-18
  Chatwin, P.B., 1936, Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Vol. 60 p. 145-6
  193?, Congress of Archaeological Societies in union with The Society of Antiquaries of London. Report of the Research Committee for the year 1934
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Dugdale, William (Caley, J., Ellis, H. and Bandinel, B. (eds)), 1817-30 (originally pub. 1655-73), Monasticon Anglicanum (London) Vol. 4 p. 175
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Dugdale, Wm., 1656, The Antiquities of Warwickshire (Thomas Warren) p. 627 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk West Midlands Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 48 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk West Midlands Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 49 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 48 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 47 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 58 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 West Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 57 online copy

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.

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