ALMELEY CASTLE

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DESCRIPTION

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Remains of a Motte and bailey, extant by 1216. The motte is 35 metres in diameter and 8 metres high. The ditch is from 1.3 metres deep on the south side to 2.5 metres deep on the north side below the bailey, and is 8 metres in width. The bailey is some 50 metres square and is bounded by a ditch on the east side, 12 metres in width and 2 metres in depth. There are also the remains of fishponds. Scheduled.

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MORE INFORMATION & SOURCES

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(SO 33235142) Motte and Bailey (NR) Fish Ponds (NR) (remains of) (NAT). (1)

Almeley Castle, motte and bailey, "consists of a roughly circular motte with a four-sided bailey on the N. The motte is about 36ft in diameter at the top, and rises some 21ft above the bottom of the surrounding dry ditch. There are remains of a ditch on the E and N sides of the bailey, and 20 yds S of the motte are two
rectangular sinkings for fishponds". (2)

A motte and bailey situated upon a ridge. The motte is 35.0m in diameter and 8.0m in height from the base of the encircling ditch. The ditch is from 1.3m deep on the S side to 2.5m deep on the N side below the bailey, and is 8.0m in width. The bailey is some 50.0m square and is bounded by a ditch on the E side, 12.0m in width, 2.0m in depth, which formerly continued around the N side but has been filled-in to form a grave-yard extension. The W side of the bailey is bounded by artificial steepening of the natural slopes presenting a bank, 4.5m in height. There are traces of an inner bank around the NW side of the bailey. The original causewayed entrance is in the E side. 50.0m SW of the motte at the foot of the ridge, by a stream,are two Md (now dry) rectangular fishponds, one, 42.0m in length, 20.0m in width, the other, 50.0m in length, 18.0m in width. The whole site is under permanent pasture.
Published 1:2500 survey revised. (3)

Almeley Castle. Border castle of possible comparative late construction, appearing in the Patent Rolls of King John, and the subject of a royal mandate in 1216. [See also SO 35 SW 3]. (4)

Additional references. (5-6)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1964

( 2) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England 1934 An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire. Volume III: north-west

1934 Page(s)6

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 20-SEP-72

(4) edited by William Page, F.S.A. 1908 The Victoria history of the county of Hereford, volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England 1908 Page(s)232

(4a) Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club : transactions

(Rev R.H.Warner) 1902-4 Page(s)235-7

(5) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

Castellarium Anglicanum 1 1983 202 (D J Cathcart King) Page(s)202

( 6) by Ron Shoesmith 1996 A guide to castles and moated sites in Herefordshire

Monuments in the landscape1 (1994) - vol.2 Page(s)48

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