Castlefacts³

Wigmore Lodge Wood Mound

Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Motte), and also as a Questionable Siege Work

There are earthwork remains

Name	Wigmore Lodge Wood Mound
Alternative Names
Historic Country	Herefordshire
Modern Authority	Herefordshire
1974 Authority	Hereford and Worcester
Civil Parish	Wigmore

Mutilated mound surrounded by ditch discovered on aerial photos. Circular, rises above ditch on N to height of some 1.5m. On S to 1m. Traces of internal bank, mutilated & indistinct. Overall diam of mound 30m, top has diam of 22m. Ditch: 0.8m deep, 2 modern breaks on W, prob to drain it. No evidence of bailey. (Historic Herefordshire on line)

The site was examined by Roger Stirling Brown. It consists of a low circular mound surrounded by a wet ditch. There appears to be a bailey to the east, virtually disappeared. There is evidence of buried and partly exposed stonework on the mound and buried stone in the bottom of the ditch. (Herefordshire SMR 33818)

A circular mound of uncertain date and origin, surrounded by a ditch, is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs. Field investigators found the mound to be in bad condition. Its appearance suggests a possible Medieval motte, but was not depicted on Ordnance Survey maps until the 1976. It may be a natural feature. (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

The site is identifed twice (in a manner that suggests two sites) by both Shoesmith and Herefordshire SMR once in Walford, Letton and Newton CP and once in Wigmore CP. It does appear, in fact, to be in Wigmore CP.Presumably the identification as a motte was based on the idea this could be outwork or siege castle of Wigmore. If this isolated mound half way up a steep hillside and with no view of Wigmore Castle is a medieval fortification it is most unusual in it's location which cannot have any strategic value either for an outwork or a siege castle of Wigmore, and is tactically weak. Gatehouse suspects it may be a feature associated with medieval hunting (it is within the deer park of Wigmore), or small disused quarry and spoil heap.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)

106422

County Historic Environment Record

htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/her-search/monuments-search/search/monument?smr_no=2539

OS Map Grid Reference	SO385694
Latitude	52.3197898864746
Longitude	-2.90231990814209
Eastings	338590
Northings	269430