Wark on Tweed Village Defences

Has been described as a Possible Urban Defence

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains

NameWark on Tweed Village Defences
Alternative Names
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishCarham

Scant remains of earth banks defending village. (Bond 1987)

Gatehouse Comments

It is unclear what Bond meant. Is this a reference to some earthworks around the modern village east of the castle or to an area west of the castle outer ward which contained St Gile's Chapel (at given map reference) which was used by the villages as a chapel of ease. Regardless of where the medieval villagers houses where the large western ward of the castle could certainly have worked as a refuge for villages and their livestock if needed. A footpath running north from the modern road to the river on the eastern boundary of the modern village lies in a gully. Is this a hollow way of a now defunct crossing of the river or a 'defensive' ditch?

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNT820387
Latitude55.6420707702637
Longitude-2.28691005706787
Eastings382040
Northings638750
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 270
  • Brown, R.Allen, 1989, Castles from the Air (Cambridge University Press) p. 221-2
  • Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  • Vickers, Kenneth H. (ed), 1922, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 11 p. 16, 30-1 online copy

Journals

  • Carlton, Richard, 2012, 'Wark-on-Tweed: Wark Castle Access and Community' Archaeology in Northumberland Vol. 21 p. 46-7 online copy
  • Bond J., 2001, 'Earthen Castles, Outer Enclosures and the Earthworks at Ascott d'Oilly Castle, Oxfordshire' Oxoniensia Vol. 46 p. 67-8 (Appendix: Earthwork castles with attached village enclosures) online copy