Worcester siege castle, West Bank (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Henwick's Hill; King Stephen's Mount

In the civil parish of Worcester.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Worcestershire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO837560
Latitude 52.19840° Longitude -2.23989°

Worcester siege castle, West Bank has been described as a probable Siege Work.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Siegework, one of two forts supposedly built by King Stephen during a siege of Worcester Castle.
According to Eaton, 'two mounds, one on Henwicke Hill and one on part of Red Hill near Diglis were raised by Stephen to besiege the castle, which was held by the Earl of Mellent but without success'.
Beardsmore quotes the following: 'but as the habit of the king was to start something strenuously and carry it out sluggishly, by the skill of the Earl of Leicester the king's siege forts were destroyed and the besieged skilfully rescued'.
Neither fort has been located. (Worcestershire and Worcester City HER)

Comments

Worcester Castle and city were attacked on several occasions and besieged In 1151 and again in 1264 (and in the C17 English Civil War). However, because siege castles were recorded for the 1151 siege all possible siege mounds get ascribed to 1151.
The Worcestershire and Worcester City HER locates this at SO837560, which was the approximate location of Henwick hamlet but suspects Henwick Hill was south of this nearer to the main road and medieval bridge. Henwick Hill does not appear on early maps and can not have been a large feature.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) WCM96634.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Worcester City Museum
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 508 (only records 2 siege castle)
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 2 (London) p. 494 online copy
  Anon, 1829, A Concise History and description of the City and Cathedral of Worcester (Worcester: T Eaton) p. 23 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Beardsmore, C., 1980, 'Documentary evidence for the history of Worcester's city defences' Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society (ser3) Vol. 7 p. 53-64

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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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