Weobley Town defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Wibelay

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO40365135
Latitude 52.15854° Longitude -2.87409°

Weobley Town defences has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The town defences were documented in the 13th century, and are believed to consist of a bank and palisade with an outer ditch. However little of the defences survives as earthworks or can be confidently inferred. A bank identified as part of the defences was excavated in the northeast corner of the urban area (unpublished; HWCM 19462), and earthworks in other areas have been identified as possibly part of the defences (HWCM 12484 and HWCM 21975). There is currently insufficient evidence to trace the full course of the defences. (Dalwood and Bryant)

The argument in favour of a defensive bank and ditch around Weobley merits examination. A linear feature to the east of the Parkfields site has long been referred to as the Town Ditch, and the earthwork in the field to the north has more recently been interpreted as part of the northern line of such defences. ... the earthwork at Parkfields lends itself to another interpretation. The feature, rather than being the remains an internal bank with an external ditch around the town, is in fact the remains of an internal ditch with an external bank around the park. (Archenfield Archaeology)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005384, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number he122
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 890323.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 19462; 21977; 12484; 21975.

Periodical Articles
- Noble, F., 1965, 'Weobley Castle and borough' The Hundred-and-Twelfth Annual Meeting at Hereford, 1965, CAA p. 22-4
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dalwood, H. and Bryant, V., 2005, The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 Download online copy
  Sherlock, Huw and Pikes, P.J., 2001, Parkfields, Weobley, Herefordshire: archaeological evaluation 2001 (Archenfield Archaeology AA/00/19) online copy

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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.
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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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