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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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Cosmeston Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Coed y Cwm

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

OS Map Grid Reference: ST17646892
Latitude 51.41282° Longitude -3.18611°

Cosmeston Castle has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Only traces remain of what is thought to have been a defensible medieval mansion, disused by C15. Limited excavations and examination of slight earthworks, bisected by a modern road, indicate a moated complex, some 50m NW-SE by at least 15m, with the principal house occupying the SE part of the site. Associated with the garden and dovecote, c.50m to the SW. (Coflein)

The enclosure and mound are not now recognisable in a pasture field within which there are a number of field banks, and grassed-over disused quarries.

Excavation revealed considerable deposits of destruction material dating to the second half of the C17. The tail of a clay bank was found underneath, C14 pottery was found in the bank material. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

Comments

Angular enclosure of possible castle. Rejected as a castle by King who writes remains are non military, although the destruction of the site is fairly intensive.
This site is called by Salter Coed y Cwm (repeated by Morgan), possibly a transcription error.

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

Data >	Coflein	County HER
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 National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 300401.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 00592s.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Cosmeston Community Archaeology Project
Books
- Davis, Paul, R., 2011, The Forgotten Castles of Wales (Almeley: Logaston Press) p. 101-108 (mention)
  Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 254 (listed as possible)
  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)
  Hague, D.B., 1971, in Pugh, T.B. (ed), Glamorgan County History Vol. 3 The Middle Ages (Cardiff) p. 439
Periodical Articles
- Cardiff University, 2008, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 52 online copy
  Spurgeon, C.J. and Thomas, H.J., 1978, 'Medieval Glamorgan' Morgannwg Vol. 22 p. 25 online copy
  Dowdell and Thomas, 1961, Archaeology in Wales Vol. 11 p. 24

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.)

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.

This record last updated before 1 February 2016

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