More information : (Centred SY 956819) The Rings (NAT) Castle (NR) (Site of) (1)
The Rings (SY 956820) earthwork remains of a 'ring-and-bailey' castle, lie some 320 yards SSW of the nearest point of Corfe castle. Their position commanding the town, the castle and a main approach route supports the view that they are remains of a siege castle thrown up by King Stephen in 1139 when he unsuccessfully besieged Corfe. They stand apart from the town and were apparently never integral with it. Traditionally a battery was sited here in the 17th century Civil War (Dorset Procs. XLVIII (1927),xlix), and the Tithe Map (1844) calls the 'Rings' 'Cromwell's Battery'. A rampart-walk inside the bank could belong to this phase (cf. the ramps, though different in form, inside Maumbury Rings.
The earthwork is set at the E end of a low chalk ridge running parallel to the much higher West Hill to the N and sloping S; the ground falls away from it on all sides but the NW., giving an excellent field of view, particularly from the 'ring'. This last, alternative to a motte, consists of a massive rampart still up to 13ft. high above the bottom of the surrounding ditch with a platform just inside it; the platform, up to 10ft wide and about 2 1/2ft below the crest, is best preserved on the SW and gives the impression of a rampart-walk (section A-B below). The rest of the interior, about 40 yards across and 1/4 acre in area, slopes gently SE. Two gaps occur in the rampart: that to the E. is modern, while the other, to the S., which is very narrow and cuts the bank diagonally, seems unlikely to be original. The bank and ditch of the bailey (see section C-D) seem to have been of similar proportions to those of the 'ring', but the interior, of about 1/2 acre, slopes more steeply and to the S as if deliberately tilted away from Corfe castle.
The 'ring' is covered with bent grass, bramble and bracken; the present road runs virtually in the ditch on the NW and has encroached on the rampart which, with the rampart-walk, has been eroded on the N.E. The bailey has long been ploughed as part of the surrounding field after destruction of the rampart on the W. Plan. (2)
SY 956819. The Rings. Scheduled. (3)
Listed by Cathcart King. (4) |