Castlefacts³

Pipe Aston Tump 2

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

There are earthwork remains

Name	Pipe Aston Tump 2
Alternative Names	Aston Tump 2
Historic Country	Herefordshire
Modern Authority	Herefordshire
1974 Authority	Hereford and Worcester
Civil Parish	Pipe Aston

The earthwork remains of a denuded Medieval motte and bailey mapped from aerial photographs. The motte is 33m in diameter and stands 2.5m high on the north side. It is separated from the bailey to the west by a ditch 6m wide and 0.5m deep, with a bank 4m wide and 0.5m high. The bailey measures 60m east to west by 40m north to south and is bounded on the north by a scarp 2m high and on the south by a ditch 10m wide, up to 2m deep. On the east side it is 7m in width and 0.7m in depth. There are remains of an outer bank. (PastScape)

Mound S of road, 350yds NE of church, roughly circ in form, 50yds diam at base, with flat top rising at most c1.5' above surrounding ground. Traces of a ditch on S & W & of small outer enclosure on W. Condition poor (RCHME).

A small & weak motte & bailey situated on low spur with stream in little ravine on N side. Motte 33m diam, stands 2.5m high on N side. Separated from bailey to W by ditch 6m wide & 0.5m deep, bank 4m wide & 0.5m high. Bailey measures 60m E-W x 40m N-S bounded on N by scarp 2m high & on S by ditch 10m wide, up to 2m deep which is taken around E side of motte, reducing to 7m width & 0.7m depth. Remains of outer bank here. Site appears to have been under plough & features are reduced & spread (OS card). Another motte/tump lies 200m to the south (SMR 313). In Notes on the Aston Castles by Paul Martin Remfry. Historical information is used to try and date when the two castles were built with the suggestion that this one SMR No 6366 was the siege castle and also one of the missing castles destroyed by Henry II.(Shoesmith; Halliwell) (Herefordshire Through Time)

Gatehouse Comments

Remfry produces arguments that this was a siege work to Pipe Aston 1 dating from the Anarchy (probably 1140's). However, it is also suggested it may be an unfinished precursor; a false start. It is certainly an undistinguished low mound and a slight scarp which shows up much better on an air photo than on the ground, where it looks like a slightly bumpy field. A false start is possible, a house platform with some slight ditches aimed at managing the occasional intense local flooding might be another. A siege castle seems improbably since the Tump is not of a size where it could have contained a force sufficient to need to be besieged.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

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

108761

County Historic Environment Record

htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/her-search/monuments-search/search/monument?smr_no=6366

OS Map Grid Reference	SO462721
Latitude	52.3444213867188
Longitude	-2.79056000709534
Eastings	346220
Northings	272110