Leigh Drummers; The Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Drummers Castle

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

OS Map Grid Reference: ST629077
Latitude 50.86762° Longitude -2.52714°

Leigh Drummers; The Castle has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Called oval ditched enclosure of possible castle by Wilton.

A medieval woodland bank or late prehistoric non-defensive enclosure. The monument takes the form of an oval enclosure measuring 310m N-S with a weak inner bank of an average 8 metre width. To the south-west and north-east are two entrances, both causewayed and measuring circa 4m in width. (PastScape)

The Castle, earthwork on the E. edge of the parish about 1 m. S.E. of the church, consists of a slight bank with occasional traces of an outer ditch and enclosing a roughly oval area of about 9 acres. The bank has been destroyed on much of the S.E. and S.W. sides but is in part represented by a scarp. There are two gaps towards the N.E. and S.W. which may represent entrances. The work occupies a comparatively level and low-lying site. (RCHME)

Slight bank with traces of outer ditch, enclosing around 9 acres. (Dorset HER as Iron Age Hillfort)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 198817.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1 060 020.

Books
- Wilton, P., 1995, Castles of Dorset (Wimborne)
  RCHME, 1952, An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset Vol. 1: west (HMSO) p. 132 no. 20 online transcription

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