Eastnor Castle Ditch (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO735370
Latitude 52.03113° Longitude -2.38643°

Eastnor Castle Ditch has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Castle Ditch (predated current Eastnor Castle) seat of the oldest branch of the de Clintons. 1386 had licence to celebrate mass. Retained until early C17. (Robinson) Survey map of 1726 shows substantial mansion surrounded by moat, with ancillary buildings to the SW outside it. (George) The medieval timbered mansion was in the C18 given a stone facade with central portico & proj semi circ bays. A series of pictures depicting Castle Ditch exist in Eastnor Castle. Castle Ditch was owned by the De Clintons from 1281, bought by the Cocks family c1600 & demolished in 1815 during the building of Eastnor Castle. The site of Castle Ditch has now largely disappeared under the present lake, though an island in the lake is said to represent the site... Upon the most northerly of the islands in the lake stood Castle Ditch until 1815 & its foundations can still be located where they extend into what is now shallow water between the island & the Castle Terraces (Somers-Cocks). (Herefordshire SMR)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4775.

Books
- Whitehead, David, 2012, 'Eastnor Castle' VCH Herefordshire (Draft text online only) online copy
  Cooper, Janet, 2012 'Eastnor Manor' VCH Herefordshire (Draft text online only) online copy
  Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 110-11
  Somers-Cocks, H.L., 1923, Eastnor & Its Malvern Hills
  1908 (4edn) A handbook and guide to places of special interest in the town of Tewkesbury and the surrounding neighbourhood (Tewkesbury: W.North) online transcription
  Robinson, C.J., 1872, A History of the Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire
Periodical Articles
- 1902, 'Eastnor Castle, Third Field Meeting (Ladies' Day), Thursday, July 24th' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club p. 45
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Parry, J.H. (ed), 1915, Registrum Johannis Gilbert, episcopi Herefordensis, A.D. MCCCLXXV-MCCCLXXXIX (Canterbury and York Society 18) p. 94
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- George, J., 1726, Survey of Manor of Castle Ditch (Eastnor Castle Archive)

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 >		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