Leigh Castle Green

Description

The remains at Castle Green are important in preserving a small Norman motte in good condition with little evidence of recent disturbance. The remains will also preserve the internal composition of the mounds and evidence about the accommodation provided on the motte and within the bailey. This will allow consideration of the functions of high status and defensive settlements within a frontier region during the early years of Norman colonisation. In addition, the water-logged areas of the monument will preserve environmental deposits which will provide insights into both the agricultural regime in the area during the Norman period, and the occupation and diet of the occupants of the monument.
The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of the motte and bailey castle at Castle Green. The motte is 4m to 5m high and 13m to 15m in diameter around the top. It is surrounded by a ditch 1m to 2m wide and 1m deep, with a counterscarp bank. To the south of the motte are the remains of another flat- topped mound, rising 3m to 4m above ground level and measuring 40m in diameter. The mound is partly surrounded by a ditch containing a water course on the north and west and partly enclosed by a moat or ponds to the south and west sides. The moat is thought to have been landscaped but continues to reflect the form shown on earlier surveys. The area thus defined is believed to be the inner bailey of the complex. The monument is first identified in a document of 1346 although the form of the earthworks suggest an earlier, Norman origin. The castle may be identified with the manor of Castleleigh held by the Pembridge family from the Abbots of Pershore in the 13th century. (Scheduling Report)

The manor of CASTLE LEIGH (Castellegh, Castellygh, xiv cent.) is perhaps to be identified with the manor of Leigh held of the Abbots of Pershore in the 13th century by the Pembridge family. Henry de Pembridge, son of Henry 'de Cleyhongre,' died before 1272. He had been embroiled in the Barons' War and lost his lands by his depredations after the peace concluded at Winchester in 1265, when his lands in Leigh were given to Matthew de Gamages. His son Henry in 1272 claimed the restoration of his lands by virtue of the Dictum of Kenilworth, and recovered Leigh from Gamages. Henry died before 1279, and was succeeded by his son Fulk, who was alive in 1282. There is no further mention of this family in connexion with Leigh until 1344–5, when the manor of Castle Leigh was granted by Thomas de Compton and John de Middelham to Peter de Montfort for life, with remainder to Alice wife of Richard le Noners for her life, and remainder on her death to Robert de Pembridge and his heirs. In 1384–5 peaceable possession of the manor of Castle Leigh was secured to the Abbot and convent of Pershore by Robert Forstall of Leigh, Isabella his wife and Richard their son. It was subordinate to the abbey's manor of Leigh till the Dissolution, and in 1574 the site with the demesne land was granted to the Earl of Leicester. The site of the manor with lands in Leigh was granted in 1605 to Edmund Colles, and from that date has descended with the manor of Leigh. (VCH 1924)