Soldiers Grave, Bonvilston (The Gatehouse Record)

Soldiers Grave, Bonvilston

In the community of St Nicholas And Bonvilston.
In the historic county of Glamorgan.
Modern authority of Vale of Glamorgan.
Preserved county of South Glamorgan.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST07057334
Latitude 51.45145° Longitude -3.33904°

Soldiers Grave, Bonvilston has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Oval ringwork 36m by 30m on flat low lying site. (Salter)

Oval ringwork surrounded by a bank 10ft above the wet ditch, and associated earthworks, possibly a bailey or burgus. A sub-oval enclosure, c.40m NW-SE by 30m, defined by a bank and ditch. Thought to be an early medieval castle enclosure, abandoned by c.1250 when the land hereabouts was granted to Margam Abbey. (Coflein)

The monument comprises the remains of a well preserved castle-ringwork, which dates to the early part of the medieval period (c. AD 1066 - 1485). There is no medieval record of the castle, but it was probably built by the de Bonville family. The site is located 850m south-east of the village of Bonvilston on low-lying marshy ground at the confluence of Nant Carfan and a minor tributary. The ringwork is roughly oval in shape on plan, but the north corner is distinctly right-angled. It measures 70m in length north-south by 55m in width transversely. The enclosing bank measures a maximum of 2m in height and stands above a wet ditch, which measures a maximum of 5m in width and 1.5m in depth. The flat internal area measures 51m north-south by 37m transversely and gently slopes to the south. The entrance is probably located on the east side, where a simple gap in the bank is accessed via a causeway across the ditch. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Hogg and King rejected this site in 1970 but accepted as castle site by King in 1983 although described as "shapeless and overgrown earthwork in very marshy site'.
Was this the site of a small village and manorial centre set up during a dry climatic period subsequently abandoned when the site became marshy?

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is GM613.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 227997.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 00696s.

Books
- Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 238 (listed)
  Pettifer, Adrian, 2000, Welsh Castles, A Guide by Counties (Boydell Press) p. 111
  RCAHMW, 1991, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Vol. 3 Part 1a: The Early Castles (London: HMSO) CR2 p. 83-5
  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. 161
  Hague, D.B., 1971, in Pugh, T.B. (ed), Glamorgan County History Vol. 3 The Middle Ages (Cardiff) p. 438
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J. and Thomas H.J., 1980, 'Bonvilston ring' Archaeology in Wales Vol. 20 p. 81-2
  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)

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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.

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This record last updated 06/07/2016 18:08:18

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