Castlefacts³

Pipe Aston Tump 1

Has been described as a Certain Timber Castle (Motte)

There are earthwork remains

Name	Pipe Aston Tump 1
Alternative Names	Aston Tump 1
Historic Country	Herefordshire
Modern Authority	Herefordshire
1974 Authority	Hereford and Worcester
Civil Parish	Pipe Aston

The earthwork remains of a moated motte mapped from aerial photographs. When field investigated in 1972 the earth and stone motte was 44m in diameter at the base and 22m in diameter on the summit. It rose 6m above the encircling moat. The marshy moat was 11m in width and from 0.5m deep on the south side to 1.5m deep on the north side. The moat was fed by a stream from the north east, leaving from the south west. (PastScape)

Mound & moat, prob castle. Mound roughly circular c 47yds diam at base rising about 24' above bottom of ditch. Moat still wet on NW side (RCHME). Earth & stone motte 44.0m in diam at base, the flat summit 22m in diam being 6m above moat. Moat once wet now marshy 11m wide, from 0.5 - 1.5m deep. Fed from stream entering from NE & leaving from SW (OS record, 1972), Outline of former bailey visible in course of road to N Motte & bailey. Partially buried foundations of a polygonal shell keep with at least 1 small D shaped tower on it, prob C11 castle (Scheduling Report). Another motte/tump lies 200m to the north (Pipe Aston Tump 2 . Notes on the Aston Castles by Paul Martin Remfry. Historical information is used to try and date when the castles were built with the suggestion that this was the main castle and was built between 1138 and 1139 (HAN, 1997). (Herefordshire SMR)

Gatehouse Comments

A steep side mound, surrounded on all side by what would have been a wet moat, with a flat top with a area large enough for a fair sized hall. It is entirely possible this was stone revetted with the local shale, making an impressive house. However there is no bailey and nothing to suggest there ever was one, although the building to the north is a courtyard complex now surrounded by a wall. This is located by the small church of St Giles, Pipe Aston with a notably fine tympanum of the Herefordshire school of Romanesque and original C12 interior wall painting.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

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

108758

County Historic Environment Record

htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/her-search/monuments-search/search/monument?smr_no=313

OS Map Grid Reference	SO461719
Latitude	52.342529296875
Longitude	-2.79140996932983
Eastings	346180
Northings	271900