Hem Ring (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Westbury.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ35670575
Latitude 52.64520° Longitude -2.95323°

Hem Ring has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

A small valley fort (sic) identified on APs by Dr St Joseph.
It was double ditched. A test trench across the inner ditch in 1958 tentatively identified three pre-Roman phases, the earliest a simple palisade trench. Four small fragments of pottery found. The pottery was shown to Messrs PA Barker, GC Dunning and JG Hurst and regarded by them as Roman with some medieval. A metalled trackway leading eastwards through the bank was reportedly found in 1959. L Chitty suggests that this may be the lost Domesday Manor of the Rea, and the site a Ringwork Castle (Guilbert G. 1976. Correspondence).
A little early medieval pottery was found. Field name Big Dollis (-dol + llys = meadow court?) (Chitty 1957-60)
There were no earthworks in any of the fields in the vicinity. Most of the fields have been ploughed in recent times. However, both the field names of the NGR and that adjoining it have the prefix Stony, in an area of no natural stone outcrops (Page 1977)
Sited in the Rea Valley about 100m OD. A roughly circular double- ditched enclosure, with simple entrance to S, c 120m in diameter. On the ground the site appears as a slight rise in the flat landscape. No surface features or defences are visible. The former owner reported that it was possible to see the cropmark on the ground when they owned it (Tyler Alan W. 1981-May. Site Visit Form).
The single palisade enclosure phase of this site was listed by Challis and Harding under Curvilinear enclosures (Iron Age) (Challis and Harding 1975).
The site of the deserted hamlet of Ree may have been the large circular ditched enclosure SW of Lower Hem Farm (VCH 1968).
Described by Whimster as a curvilinear double ditched enclosure (Whimster 1989).
Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, Medium score as one of 20 Ringworks (Horton Wendy B. 1990/ 1991. MPP Evaluation File). (Shropshire HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 66324.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00646.

Books
- Whimster, Rowan, 1989, The Emerging Past: Air photography - the Buried Landscape (RCHME) No 1 on Fig 26, p. 43
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 72 (reject)
  Challis, A.J. and Harding, D.W., 1975, Later Prehistory Trent to Tyne (British Archaeological Reports British Series 20.2) p. 53
  Gaydon, A.T. (ed), 1968, VCH Shropshire Vol. 8 p. 307
  Eyton, R.W.,1858, Antiquities of Shropshire (London) Vol. 7 p. 116-117 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Chitty, L.F., 1957-60, Transactions of the Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club Vol. 15 p. 77
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Page, S., 1977, Deserted Villages in Shropshire Site list. p. 29 (Typescript thesis)

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio