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THURNHAM CASTLE

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Thurnham Castle crowns the point of a steep spur of the North Downs, which commands the Maidstone-Sittingbourne road and the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury. It is a motte and bailey castle with gatehouse and curtain walls in flint and traces of an oval or polygonal shell keep. The bailey was divided into an inner and outer ward, the latter formed by a bank and ditch on the steep southern slopes of the hill.

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[TQ 8079 5816] Thurnham Castle [NR] (Remains of) Urns and other remains found [NAT] (1)

Thurnham Castle crowns the point of a steep spur of the North Downs, which commands the Maidstone-Sittingbourne road and the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury.
It is a motte and bailey castle with gatehouse and curtain walls in flint and traces of an oval or polygonal shell keep. The bailey was divided into an inner and outer ward, the latter formed by a bank and ditch on the steep southern slopes of the hill. (2)

Plan. (3)

Scheduled. (4)

Thurnham Castle is essentially as described by Authority 2 except that the so-called outer bailey is in fact part of the large chalk quarry which extends over the lower slopes of the hill below the castle. For particulars of detail, etc, see 1:2500 revision. (5)

Thurnham Castle motte and bailey, at 180 metres O.D., occupied the end of a short south-west spur on the crest of the South Downs, presenting extensive views over the Weald.
A massive disused chalk quarry has encroached upon the southern perimeter of the motte, which is 70 metres across at the base and about 5 metres high. A much silted ditch is traceable around the north and west sides. The north-west part of the ditch extends for 147 metres, is 12 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep; the western part is 19 metres long, 0.3 metres deep, and reduced to 5 metres in width by slip from the mound.
The top of the motte is 22 metres in diameter, of which 16 metres is a bowl shaped depression 1 metre to 2 metres deep with a further small hollow in the centre 1.5 metres deep; probably an excavation pit. At the edge of the top in the south-west quadrant there is a fragment of flint walling 2.5 metres long, 1.3 metres thick and 0.3 metres high. This may represent part of a shell keep. No other remains can be seen but the whole is densely overgrown.
To the west of the motte a rectilinear ward or bailey, about 55 metres long (north to south) and 35 metres wide, had been constructed on a gentle south slope. At the north-east angle, near the edge of the motte ditch are the east and west walls of a gatehouse 10 metres long and 5.5 metres wide overall. Stripped of any facing stone the walling is of well mortared flint, up to 2.5 metres high and 0.9 metres thick. The east side is pierced by a subsidiary entrance gap with out-turned flanking foorings 1 metre long, but nothing to suggest that walling extended fully from gatehouse to keep. The the west of the gatehouse is the northern curtain wall, the best surviving structural remains at Thurnam Castle. It is 0.9 metres thick, 3.5 metres high and continues for 22 metres to the north-west corner of the bailey. From here only footings, mostly at ground level, form the west side fo the ward and saving one fragment the whole of the south side has been eroded by quarrying or subsequent slip. The remaining fragment is at the south-west angle a 6 metres length of flint masonry 0.4 metres above the ground level and a further 0.6 metres visible in the subsoil at the quarry edge.
No traces of a ditch can be seen outside the north part of the bailey and on the west the footings follow the crest of a short but steep slope to a road that alters direction to confrom to the castle plan. There is no sign of an outer ward and it seem possible that Ditchfield (2) was misled by the shape of the chalk quarry. Although the castle has been much robbed of its masonry, footings might be exposed if the site were cleared of the humus and undergrowth which masks it. (6)

Listed by Cathcart King. (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 25" 1939

( 2) General reference

Memorials of Old Kent 1907 197-8 (ed PH Ditchfield)

( 3) edited by William Page 1908 The Victoria history of the county of Kent, volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)423-4

( 4) General reference

MOW List of Anc Mon Eng & Wales 1958 46

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 CFW 20-NOV-61

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F2 NVQ 16-OCT-86

(7) 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

Page(s)235

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