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CASTLE ORCHARD

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DESCRIPTION

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Earthwork remains of a Motte and Bailey castle. The castle was excavated by Pitt-Rivers in 1879-80 when a quantity of Norman and Medieval pottery was found. Excavations also took place in 1939. Scheduled.

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(ST 769319) MOTTE & BAILEY (GT). (1)

'Castle Orchard', a motte and bailey earthwork.
Excavations were made inside it, in 1879, by Pitt-Rivers, in the
rampart and outer ditch. They were seen to be of later construction than the underlying pits forming part of the Pen Pits complex -
ST 73 SE 5. Norman and glazed Md pottery was found and is in Taunton Museum. A detailed description with measurements of the earthworks is given by Bothamley. The valley is occupied by farm buildings. MOW records state that shortly before the 1939-45 war a trial excavation was carried out at the motte and a battered stone wall with flint was discovered. (2-5)

A very good example of a motte and bailey castle occupying the east end of a steep sided densely wooded spur. The motte has an uneven top resulting from excavations, particularly those of 1939 where the trenches are still open though in part collapsed. Such masonry as can be seen forms no intelligible plan. The bailey is to the west of the motte with a deep ditch cutting it off from the spur. In the south-east corner a quarried out platform seems to incorporate a building site but this platform may be of subsequent date and not connected with the fortifications. It now affords the only reasonable approach to the interior. There are no traces of bridge abutments at the ends of the bailey. Immediately north of the castle is a natural shelf, much lower than the spur. Part of this has been enclosed to form an outer ward, utilising a steep valley slope on the east and north east and constructing a bank and ditch along the north west to about the bailey ditch. The bank is now approximately 2.0m high and very spread, the outer ditch mostly completely silted, but 0.4m deep in two short sections. Surveyed at 1/2500. (6-7)

Listed. (8)

The castle should be seen in the context of its relationship to Penselwood village and two other fortified sites at Charlton Musgrave and Penselwood, with which Castle Orchard may have formed part of a unified programme of castle-building. (9)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1962

( 2) Somerset archaeology and natural history : the proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society

96 - 1952 Page(s)10

( 3) KSB Keats-Rohan The Making of Henry of Oxford: Englishmen in a Norman world

Oxoniensiavol 1 (1936) - 25 - 1880 Page(s)7

( 4) edited by R B Pugh and Elizabeth Crittall 1957 A history of Wiltshire: volume 1, part 1

The Victoria history of the counties of England (L V Grinsell) 1957 Page(s)269

( 5) edited by William Page 1911 The Victoria history Somerset, volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England (C H Bothamley) 1911 Page(s)517-8

( 6) General reference

MOW, RF. 333

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

F1 NVQ 10-JUN-70

( 8) 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)501

(9) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

93, 2000 Page(s)111-2

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