Burghill Castle

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte)

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains

NameBurghill Castle
Alternative Names
Historic CountryHerefordshire
Modern AuthorityHerefordshire
1974 AuthorityHereford and Worcester
Civil ParishBurghill

An earthwork at Burghill (consisted of a small square platform surrounded by a moat with an outside rampart upon S & E. Classified as a homestead moat. Mound now been completely levelled & moat filled up. (VCH). Only shallow ground undulations now denote site of moat (OS record). A motte and bailey castle that may well be pre-Conquest. Thomas Blount writing in c. 1655 says that a rampart and fosse surrounded the existing orchard, to the west of the church. Covered about 1.5ha, sited to dominate the Roman and post Roman roads of Herefordshire (Bount). Levelled at the end of the last century, all traces have been obliterated (Blake). (Herefordshire SMR)

In the orchard adjoining the church yard is an ancient barrow. (Kelly's Directory 1858)

Gatehouse Comments

Has been suggested as a pre-Conquest castle. The site is certainly a manorial centre and the place-name certainly suggests a Saxon thegnal burh site. However the earthworks, which did include a mound, do not seem to have been particularly substantial. The site was actual quite well known but never considered as a motte and bailey by experience field archaeologists and Wardle's thesis that this was England's first castle, or even a pre-conquest castle, is rather more speculative than that of most careful writers. The very experienced Herefordshire castle studies expert Ron Shoesmith is certainly not convinced by Wardle's arguments. It may well have been a Saxon thegnal site, possible adapted post-Conquest with a mainly symbolic motte, and then even latter adapted into a fashionable square moat (excavation is needed to test this) but it certainly was not England's first castle. The first 'castle' in England depends on what definition of castle one is using. For a pre-Conquest motte castle Richards Castle is often suggested but arguably Dover Castle had a long period as a strongly fortified high status Saxon residence probably dating well back into the C9 and the natural fortress of Bamburgh Castle, with a possible history of basically continual occupation dating from before the Roman Conquest, was a Northumbrian royal palace from the C6 and is recorded as walled in stone in the late C6.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSO478446
Latitude52.0977210998535
Longitude-2.76311993598938
Eastings347820
Northings244650
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.

Calculate Print

Books

  • Shoesmith, Ron, 2009 (Rev edn.), Castles and Moated Sites of Herefordshire (Logaston Press) p. 23-4, 84
  • Wardle, T., 2009, England's first castle: the story of a 1000-year old mystery (Stroud: History Press)
  • 1981, Herefordshire Countryside Treasures (Hereford and Worcester County Council) p. 34
  • Blake, W.A., 1972, Parish of Burghill, Herefordshire (booklet)
  • RCHME, 1932, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 2: east p. 43 no. 2 online transcription
  • Gould, I. Chalkley, 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Herefordshire Vol. 1 p. 249
  • 1858, Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire online copy

Antiquarian

  • Blount, Thomas, 1675, Manuscript collections for Herefordshire (held in Hereford Record Office)

Journals

  • Wardle, T., 2009 June, 'England's first castle' History Today Vol. 59.6 p. 4-5 download copy