Castlefacts³

Avenbury, Castle Fieldname

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Other/Unknown)

There are no visible remains

Name	Avenbury, Castle Fieldname
Alternative Names
Historic Country	Herefordshire
Modern Authority	Herefordshire
1974 Authority	Hereford and Worcester
Civil Parish	Avenbury

Avenbury is a village in the north-east of Herefordshire, 2 miles south of Bromyard. It is nestled in a loop of the River Frome amongst the hills. The second part of the name of the village, "bury", comes from the word "burh" which is the name for an Anglo-Saxon settlement that was surrounded by a bank of earth. This may suggest that a settlement existed here some time before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. There is a possible castle site here which is indicated in the 1840 Tithe Award for the village, where there are two fields recorded as Big Castle Field and Little Castle Field. These fields were both owned by Benjamin Saunders in 1840. (Herefordshire Through Time)

Gatehouse Comments

Entirely reasonable site for a small manorial centre with the sort of general defense any such centre is likely to have had in the C11-C12 (i.e. a small embankment and palisade). There is nothing to suggest particularly intense agriculture here so whatever was here is likely to have been fairly slight and possible abandoned at a fairly early date allowing for a long period of low intensity agricultural activity to destroy whatever earthworks there may have been.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record

htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/her-search/monuments-search/search/monument?smr_no=18107

OS Map Grid Reference	SO649507
Latitude	52.1528816223145
Longitude	-2.51298999786377
Eastings	364900
Northings	250700