Wistanstow, The Grove enclosure

Description

A semi-circular earthwork feature with the river on one side. The banks have been created by digging dtches and piling up the earth. This site represents: a possible ringwork of probable medieval date, a possible garden feature of 19th to 20th century date, an enclosure of unknown date. (Shropshire HER online version summary)
Possible defensive site immediately north of junction of Quinny Brook and River Onny, The Grove, near Craven Arms. On land that slopes gently down to the Quinny Brook but with an approximately 5m drop to water level, a roughly semi-circular enclosure has been created by digging a ditch and throwing the spoil inwards to create a bank. At its highest point the bank is some 3m above the original ground level. The diameter of the circle as measured along the stream bank is approximately 50-55m. At the northern-most point of the circle there are traces of a masonry structure of some sort, utilising what appears to be local stone. The ditch varies in width: at its widest point, towards the north, the floor is some 4m wide; elsewhere, it appears to be considerably narrower. There is no obvious sign of an entrance, except at the northern corner of the site where a cattle-track approaches along the edge of the river terrace and passes between the masonry structure and the steep drop from terrace to flood plain The masonry structure is barely visible but appears to have been constructed of slabs of local stone as facing material with a rubble core: there is no obvious sign of mortar. Tumble on the western bank of the possible entrance may suggest that a structure of some sort revetted the bank of the terrace or crowned the bank for some distance to the south. Although the form and to some extent the siting of the earthwork suggests a defensive function it is equally possible that it was associated with the intensive landscaping of the Grove park/garden in the late C19. The existence of iron railings to protect or define the bank and interior is probably not significant, since thousands of metres of such fencing were erected in the parkland. Another earthwork some 150m upstream appears to be a dam, possibly associated with the demolished Berry Mill. Some 30m to the east there appears to be a shallow platform possibly associated with quarrying. A faint trackway, followed by a definitive footpath, skirts the outer edge of the ditch passing in a roughly north-east/south-west direction. There is a late C19 fence on the outward lip of the ditch. The earthwork generally contains considerable thorn scrub with one or two oaks of some 80 to 100 years old. At one point there is the remains of what might possibly be a metal gate, but there appears to be no brick or other obviously late material (Thomas 1995). (Shropshire HER)

Comments

Whilst this seems an unlikely site to Gatehouse it can not be exclude and it may be a precursor for The Grove if this building dates back further than the current early C19 building. The modest Domesday manor was held by Nigel the doctor.