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The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.

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Bedford Castle

In the community of Llantwit Major.
In the historic county of Glamorgan.
Modern authority of Vale of Glamorgan.
Preserved county of South Glamorgan.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS980693
Latitude 51.41352° Longitude -3.46802°

Bedford Castle 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

An irregular enclosure about 35m in diameter, defined by a bank. Eccentrically placed within is a stony mound, 10m in diameter and 0.7m high. (Coflein)

The mound, of turf covered solid stone, is a collapsed building, probably the dovecote. The surrounding bank was possibly its enclosure no traces of any ditches. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

The monument comprises the remains of a motte dating to the medieval period (c. 1066 -1540 AD). A motte is a large conical or pyramidal mound of soil and/or stone, usually surrounded by either a wet or dry ditch, and surmounted by a tower constructed of timber or stone. The site consists of a small grass covered mound in the corner of a field south of Llanmaes church. The mound is roughly circular, 10m in diameter and 0.8m high, with a flattish top. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

This site has been considered by some to be a castle but is rejected as such by Hogg and King. Described as a moated site by Salter. Scheduled as Motte, but early scheduling can be suspect. Otherwise this site appears to be recorded as ?medieval ?enclosed Dovecote. Situated just outside village of Llanmaes but in different parish (and probably so in medieval period) Llanmaes has a castle (Malefant Castle) and this is unlikely as predecessor, successor or siege castle. The small mound in the center of the small embanked enclosure (Note not a ditch) is probably a collapsed dovecot, possibly of late C15 date, when Jasper Tudor, Earl of Bedford held Llanmaes by escheat.

Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >	Coflein	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	Historic Wales	V. O. B.	Geology	LIDAR
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is GM113.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 307473.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 00444s.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 1991, The Castles of Gwent, Glamorgan and Gower (Malvern) p. 75 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 174 (reject)
  Davis, Paul R., 1983, Castles of Glamorgan (Alun Books) p. 47
  RCAHMW, 1982, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Vol. 3 Part 2: Secular Non-defensive Monuments (London: HMSO) MS14 p. 114-5
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J. with Roberts, D.J. and Thomas, H.J., 1999, 'Supposed Castles in Glamorgan; A review' Archaeology in Wales Vol. 39 27-40
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1970, 'Castles in Wales and the Marches (Additions and corrections to lists published in 1963 and 1967)' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 119 p. 119-124 (reject)

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 the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), 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.

Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)

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This record last updated 06/07/2016 17:07:37

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