Welshampton mound

Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Motte)

There are earthwork remains

NameWelshampton mound
Alternative NamesWelch Hampton
Historic CountryShropshire
Modern AuthorityShropshire
1974 AuthorityShropshire
Civil ParishWelshampton And Lyneal

Bronze Age bowl barrow surviving as an earthwork and the site of second possible barrow, destroyed in 1873. The surviving barrow is 20 meters in diameter and 2.3 meters high. On the east side are traces of a ditch 10 meters wide and 0.4 meters deep. The surviving barrow is scheduled. (PastScape)

At the east end of Welsh Hampton village is still a small mound supposed to have been a barrow, a second one within 50 yds of it having been removed in 1873 to make way for a house. This mound, 12 feet in height above the road, consisted almost entirely of gravel and no finds of any kind were made (annotated map record; Lee 1874; 1877). Auden mentions a mound in "Moat Meadow" at Welshampton, supposed locally to be the site of a "Castle" presumably the one shown on APs at SJ 43583499 (5).

A round barrow, situated at SJ 43573499 upon the top of a pasture-covered ridge, has a diameter of 20.0m and a height of 2.2m. A shallow ditch on the E side has been reduced and spread by ploughing, and is 10.0m in width, 0.4m in depth. The feature is known to the farm-owner Mr Lloyd, as "The Round Barrow". About 40.0m to the E of the barrow at SJ 43613501, a house, probably that erected in 1873 stands upon a raised area of levelled, made-up ground, which could well be the base of a second, destroyed mound, probably another round barrow.

Several local enquiries of elderly villagers and of a farmer failed to locate 'Moat Meadow' and there appears to be no local tradition of the site of a 'castle' at Welshampton (F1 ASP 20-JUL-73). (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

The tenurial history of this modest Domesday manor (Hantone) is not inconsistent with a small manor marker with a adjacent motte as is common in west Shropshire. At first glance this barrow is in the right location to have had some reuse as a symbolic motte, however, the modern Welshampton is probably not the site of the medieval settlement.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSJ435349
Latitude52.9095115661621
Longitude-2.8405499458313
Eastings343570
Northings334990
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 73 (reject)
  • Eyton, R.W., 1860, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 10 p. 92- (tenurial history) online copy

Journals

  • Auden, JE, 1929-30, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 12 p. 317
  • Lee, H.M., 1877, 'British mounds at Welshampton' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 32 p. 73 online copy
  • Lee, H.M., 1874, 'The course of Watling Street between Uriconium and Deva' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 29 p. 207 online copy