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MONUMENT NO. 205233

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The possible site of a castle built in 1153. Various sites have been proposed and this siting is therefore provisional.

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A castle is said to have been built at Dursley (ST 7598) by Roger de Berkeley after his loss of Berkeley in AD 1153, although it is recorded that Henry, Duke of Anjou, spent a night at the castle of "Durslea" in 1149. The building may have been merely a fortified manor-house, though the mention in a 13th century document of a "Castrum" at Dursley may indicate the existence of a regular fortress. Its ruins were said to be still visible in 1779 in a garden adjoining Castle Fields, less than 1/4 mile from the town (possibly in the locality of Castle Farm, St 755982), and a garden adjoining the Lower Castle Field, or alternatively a spot in Upper Castle Field, have been suggested as possible sites, though the latter yielded no discoveries when subject to slight excavation prior to 1886. The castle was said by Leland to have had a good moat, but to have fallen into decay and its materials used to build the manor-house at Dodington. Renn proposes the earthworks at Drakestone (ST 79 NW 2) as a possible site of the castle. (1-6)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1a) General reference

Gesta Stephani 143-4

( 1) D F Renn 1968 Norman Castles in Britain

1968 Page(s)180

( 2) General reference

New History Glos 1779 424-5 (S Rudder)

( 3) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

11 - 1886-7 Page(s)198-9

( 4) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

(Sir Henry Barkly) 11 - 1886-7 Page(s)223

( 5) General reference

Leland's Itinery 1535-43 (L Toulmin Smith's ed) 1964 4 130

( 6) General reference

Leland's Itinery 1535-43 (L Toulmin Smith's ed) 1964 5 96

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