Badbury, Wimborne (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Badbury Rings

In the civil parish of Shapwick.
In the historic county of Dorset.
Modern Authority of Dorset.
1974 county of Dorset.
Medieval County of Dorset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST964030
Latitude 50.82653° Longitude -2.05247°

Badbury, Wimborne has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Leland writes "Close to Wimborne the Saxon kings had a castle, now completely demolished, which is now called Badbury. The banks and ditches and site of the castle are still visible, but now rabbits burrow into it."

Badbury Rings a multivallate Iron Age hill-fort, is sited prominently on a chalk knoll rising to 327 ft. above O.D.; it commands wide views in all directions. Together with the adjacent settlement (ST 90 SE 37) it has been identified with Vindocladia of the Antonine Itinerary, and also with Mons Badonicus of Gildas. Its later history includes occupation by an army under Ethelwold, c. 899, and by the 'Clubmen' in 1645. The site has not been excavated, but the earthworks indicate at least two phases of construction. The interior of the hill-fort is domed and largely covered with trees. A prominent fir copse, Badbury Clump, within a low embanked circle on the summit of the knoll had already been planted when Colt Hoare visited the site c. 1820. There is evidence of shallow quarrying immediately inside the inner rampart, doubtless to provide additional material for the defences. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1002679, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number do22
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 209560.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3 019 034 A.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- Hogg, A.H.A., 1979, British Hill-Forts: An Index (British Archaeological Reports British Series 62)
  RCHME, 1975, An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset Vol. 5: east (HMSO) p. 61-3 no. 34 (plan) online transcription
  Crawford, O.G.S. and Keller, Alexander, 1928, Wessex from the Air p. 58-61
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 139
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 256 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Donachie, J.D., 1994 May 19, RCHME Field Survey Report: Badbury Rings, Shapwick, Dorset

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.
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