Newtown Hall Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

Newtown Hall Motte

In the community of Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn.
In the historic county of Montgomeryshire.
Modern authority of Powys.
Preserved county of Powys.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO107914
Latitude 52.51333° Longitude -3.31703°

Newtown Hall Motte has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A 'D'-shaped mound measuring overall 55m (NW-SE) by 35m, its flat top 40m by 15m. Height of mound is about 4m above the bottom of a broad ditch which encircles the mound except on the NW. The mound has been transformed into an ornamental feature of the grounds surrounding Newtown Hall. Possible traces of a bailey to the NW. (Coflein)

Much mutilated late c 13th motte and bailey. filled ditch to N of now D shaped motte and small stone building prob civil war refortification. Bailey 79m N-S by 61m E-W in NE corner present park. moat to S. (Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust HER)

After the fall of Dolforwyn, the local market was shifted from that site, down to the valley, where Roger Mortimer created Newtown in 1280. This would probably have been ramparted, and a mound rising to 5m with a 39m summit and bailey 79m by 61m was built on the south side of the town. Foundations of a stone building were found by excavation in 1910, but this may have dated from 1641, when Sir John Price refortified the site during the English Civil War. (Daniel Mersey – Castle of Wales)

Comments

1280 is an exceptionally late date for the construction of a motte, particularly one in a new English borough of a baron as significant as Mortimer. It seems reasonable to suppose there was an earlier settlement at this site and the motte may predate the foundation of Mortimer's new borough, although this was certainly the site of the manor house of that borough.

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is MG160.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 300896.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 1034.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Jeff Thomas's Castles of Wales
  Jeff Thomas's Castles of Wales
Books
- Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 245 (listed)
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of Mid Wales (Malvern) p. 47
  Pettifer, Adrian, 2000, Welsh Castles, A Guide by Counties (Boydell Press) p. 152
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 299
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker)
  RCAHMW, 1911, An inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Montgomeryshire (HMSO) p. 161-2 no. 818 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J., 1967, 'Llanelwedd Mound' Archaeology in Wales Vol. 7 p. 10
  Spurgeon, C.J., 1966, ‘The castles of Montgomeryshire’ Montgomeryshire Collections Vol. 59 p. 16-7 online copy
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124
  1911-12, Transactions of the Caedwain Field Club p. 43
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Silvester, R.J., 1992, Montgomeryshire Historic Settlements (CPAT report)

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 04/07/2016 09:15:31

¤¤¤¤¤

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