CASTLE HILL

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A small ruinous timber framed building, mainly 15th century but with traces of earlier work. A fragment of a moat encircles a third of the hill and three fishponds. It has been suggested that the site is the royal hunting lodge of the Forest of Kinver, but this is now known to be elsewhere. The location of an earlier lodge, recorded 1184-5, is however unknown.

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(SO 81328204) Castle (NR) (Remains of) (1)

At Castle Hill, or Baron Hill, there is a small ruinous timber-framed building, used as a cowshed, mainly of 15th century date but bearing traces of earlier features. On the hillside itself is a segment of a moat encircling a third of the hill and the embankments of three communicating fishponds covering about 4 acres. The two lower ponds still contain water while the upper is used as an orchard. (2)

Duignan (2), a usually competent authority, believed these remains to be those of the royal hunting lodge of the Forest of Kinver recorded in documents of 1195-6, but Colvin (3) shows that this lay on the site of Stourton Castle (SO 88 SE 6). There had been an earlier royal hunting lodge at Kinver, recorded in 1184-5, but its site is unknown. (3)

Listed by Cathcart King as a possible castle site. (4)

The site was visited on 06-FEB-1997. The site is traditionally associated with the site of a Royal hunting lodge favoured by King John. Although the site displays evidence of domestic occupation for a considerable period and the existence of fragmentary building remains in sandstone and of historic fishponds tends to confirm its importance, we were not able to identify the specific location of the medieval remains. However, the site is still regarded as having a high archaeological potential. (5)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 25" 1884

( 2) General reference

Transactions of the Worcestershire Naturalists Club 5 1912 300-2 (W H Duignan)

( 3) R Allen Brown, H M Colvin and A J Taylor 1963 The history of the King's Works, volume 2 : the Middle Ages

Page(s)977-8

(4) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

Page(s)508

(5) English Heritage Alternative Action Report

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