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Skenfrith Village Defences

In the community of Llangattock Vibon Avel.
In the historic county of Monmouthshire.
Modern authority of Monmouthshire.
Preserved county of Gwent.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO454203
Latitude 51.87894° Longitude -2.79174°

Skenfrith Village Defences has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The rectangular enclosure within which the village of Skenfrith lay was protected by a bank and ditch with the motte (SO 42 SE 11) standing in one corner. Enclosed village c. 1075. (Wiggins 2006) (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

The monument comprises the remains of earthworks, platforms and building footings, representing a deserted village, of probable medieval date. The village was associated with the castle and village of Skenfrith. Excavations revealed early timber buildings built over by later stone buildings of 13th to 14th century date. The monument lies in two adjacent pasture fields, one on either side of the village street. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Although the flood plain of the River Monnow is not large the village does sit in it. The steepness of the local hills and narrowness of the river valley means that when the river does flood it probably floods quickly and intensely. The bank and ditch may have more to do with managing this danger than any human violence although the bank and ditch may have given a sense of security.

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 MM215.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 54442.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 01699g.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 217, 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
  Soulsby, Ian, 1983, The Towns of Medieval Wales (Phillimore; Chichester) p. 240-1 (plan of medieval town, no mention of defences)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 291
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Wiggins, H., 2006, Prehistoric defended enclosures in Gwent

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 07/07/2016 08:47:20

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