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ELMLEY CASTLE

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Earthwork remains of a Medieval ringwork or motte and bailey superimposed on two Iron Age hillforts. The Medieval castle is said to have been built by Robert le Despenser circa 1080, and until 1396 was the chief seat of the Beauchamp family. It seems to have been habitable until 1528, but in 1544 was roofless and in a state of decay. Minor excavations located the probable site of the Keep. There was also a college of secular priests or chantry chapel. Scheduled.

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[SO 979402] Castle of Elmley [N.R.] (Earthworks)

The Norman Castle of Elmley is supposed to have been erected by Robert le Despenser, and until 1396 was the chief seat of the Beauchamp family. It seems to have been habitable until 1528, but in 1544 was roofless and in a state of decay.(2)

A few fragments still remain, and in Leland's time at least one tower was extant, but at that time stone was already being carted away for reparations to Pershore Bridge.(3)

The deer-park in which the castle stands was possibly made c.1234.(4)

The castle's situation (at 600ft. O.D.) is at a greater height than was usual, but there are no signs that it had a motte. Two well defined entrances of the E. and W. belong probably to the original work. The complex plan represents more than one period of fortification.(5)

Although only a castle is recorded, the work in fact appears to be composite, comprising a Norman mound and bailey superimposed on the central and southern parts of an Iron Age contour fort. The siting, on an isolated hill, is typically Iron Age, and both on the ground and on air-photographs the sharp-cut central and southern works contrast clearly with the more eroded rampart on the north and east; this suggests that the whole of the southern rampart may be Norman recutting of original Iron Age work, while the outer northern rampart was left in its original form as serving no purposes in the Norman plan. Centred at SO 9795 4026 some minor excavations have revealed part of the castle building, probably the keep; and there is scattered building debris within the motte area and remains of building foundations within the bailey.
Published survey (25") revised.

Field work suggests that Elmley Castle is a complex of two successive Iron Age hillforts, the outer one with an inturned entrance; a Norman ring-work, probably added by Robert Despencer about 1080; and a bailey to the SW added about 1130-1140, being an adaptation of the Iron Age earthwork. Foundations of a stone keep within the ring-work remain, and south of the bailey is a single small square fishpond.

A Medieval college or large chantry was founded in the castle at Elmley Castle by Guy de Beauchamp, in 1308 for eight chaplains and four clerks. It may have later become a small chantry at the parish church as the castle became ruinous in the early 16th century. It was dissolved in 1545.
SO 979 403: Elmley Castle. Scheduled. (9)

SO 979 402: Elmley Castle. The hillfort and castle are as described by auth 1-8. 1:2500 depiction correct. (10)

Listed by Cathcart King. (11)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

O.S. 6" 1954.

( 2) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

50 - 1928 Page(s)6

( 3) General reference

Worcs. (The Little Guides) 1952.72. (F.T.S.Houghton & Matley Moore)

( 4) edited by William Page and J W Willis-Bund 1913 The Victoria history of the county of Worcester: volume three

The Victoria history of the counties of England (O.M. Moger & A. Wragge) 1913 Page(s)340

( 5) edited by William Page and J W Willis-Bund 1924 The Victoria history of the county of Worcester: volume four

The Victoria history of the counties of England (D.H. Montgomerie) 1924 Page(s)432

( 6a) Aerial photograph

APs OS 67.003, 065-6 (March 1967).

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JB 22-NOV-67

( 7) Council for British Archaeology Group 8: West Midlands Research Committees reports

(J Bond & M Aston). 13 - 1970 Page(s)25-6

( 8) by David Knowles and R Neville Hadcock 1971 Medieval religious houses in England and Wales

(D Knowles & R N Hadcock) 1971 Page(s)414,425

( 9) Scheduled Monument Notification

Eng Heritage SAMs Here & Worc

(10) Field Investigators Comments

F2 WDC 09-OCT-89

(11) 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

2 Page(s)507

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ELMLEY CASTLE
ELMLEY CASTLE

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Elmley Castle consists of two Iron Age contour hillforts which were modified in the Mediaeval period when a motte and bailey castle utilised the posit...

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