Awre Bailey Close (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Awre.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO709079
Latitude 51.76901° Longitude -2.42311°

Awre Bailey Close has been described as a Uncertain although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Postmedieval fieldname 'Bailey Close', recorded to the south of Awre church on the rectified copy of the Awre tithe map and apportionment (1840).
Glos SMR 25344 (also Bailey Close) is not related to any known caste site but is sited c. 350m to the south of Awre church (Glos SMR 8300). Although Awre is one of the settlements mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 (Moore 1982), this document contains no reference to a castle, although the church reportedly dates to the early 13th century (Verey 1970), and a castle in this area may, therefore postdate the Domesday survey. (Gloucestershire HER)

Comments

Gatehouse suspects a field in the demense of the manorial steward or bailiff, although this is not improbable as the site of manorial centre. The manor was a royal holding until 1204 and does not appear to have ever been the site of a high status residence. It seems unlikely a stewards house, even as the centre of a royal manor, would be meaningfully fortified or even much dressed up with any martial symbolism.
The map reference given in the Gloucestershire HER is no more specific than square SO7007 but the description 'south of the church' puts this approximately at the given reference.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 25344.

Books
- A P Baggs and A R J Jurica, 1996, 'Awre', in C R J Currie and N M Herbert (eds), VCH Gloucestershire Vol. 5 p. 14-46 (manorial history only) online copy

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 Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information 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.

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.

Data >		County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio