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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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Penmark Village Defences

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

OS Map Grid Reference: ST055689
Latitude 51.41138° Longitude -3.35997°

Penmark Village Defences has been described as a Urban Defence but is rejected as such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Supposed scant traces of medieval earthwork village defences. Hogg and King write 'Clark detected a large outer enclosure (to the castle) which might have contained a defended village, but this is almost certainly merely field boundaries.'

Large oval field to the north of the village of Penmark, recorded by RCAHMW as scarped around its edges, probably either as a result of its use as a cultivated field or representing an enclosed settlement. Any surviving earthworks to the east are probably also associated with the ruinous Penmark Castle as shown on the 1885 1st edition OS map. The site is now believed to be a natural landform rather than an enclosure. (Wiggins and Evans 2005). (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

Comments

The natural scarping on three sides does make this look like a defensible position, particularly for those with unsophisticated ideas about the nature of medieval Wales and warfare. However the village clearly was not inside this field and the name 'Barrenhill' suggests very little else was either.

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

Data >		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 County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 01450s.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 273
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds), Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1967, 'Masonry castles in Wales and the Marches: a list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 116 p. 71-132
  Clark, G.T., 1861, 'Some Account of the Parish of Penmark' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 16 p. 10 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Wiggins, H. and Evans, E., 2005, Prehistoric defended enclosures in Glamorgan with recommendations for fieldwork

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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.
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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 10/07/2016 04:45:45

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