Castle Bromwich Castle Hill
Has been described as a Certain Timber Castle (Motte)
There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains
| Name | Castle Bromwich Castle Hill |
| Alternative Names | Pimple Hill; The Tump; The Tumulus |
| Historic Country | Warwickshire |
| Modern Authority | Solihull |
| 1974 Authority | West Midlands |
| Civil Parish | Castle Bromwich |
The remains of a motte and bailey mostly destroyed by the construction of the M6 motorway. A much mutilated, reduced and mis-shapen motte remains, measuring, at the base, 48m east to west, by 30m north to south and 4.5m in height. The summit of the motte measures 17m by 12m. A short stretch of bailey ditch 18m in length and 10m in width was excavated by Birmingham Museum. These excavations also revealed evidence for a timber structure on top of the motte and C12-C13 buildings inside the bailey along with a C16 house. Evidence for Medieval and Roman settlement was found. (PastScape)
Castle Bromwich. According to Dugdale the first mention of the de Bromwich family is in 1168, but the castle, the motte and bailey, with of course its timber tower, is no doubt earlier than that. The motte is about 25 ft. across the top and 20 to 25 ft. high above the bailey level. A bank on the east side may be the remains of the enclosing earthwork of the bailey, but evidently considerable alterations have been made, much modifying the original plan. On the south-east side of the motte there is a deep trench. This may be the site of the later Manor House which took the place of the timber tower on the motte. (PastScape–ref. Chatwin)
WARWICKSHIRE: CASTLE BROMWICH (SP 143901). Excavations by W .J. Ford for the Birmingham City Museum and M.P.B.W. on the motte and bailey revealed that each of the bailey ditches, which enclosed an area of 2 .S acres, ended at a timber-reverted causeway upon which a planked and railed structure had been built. The rampart also had a timber facing. Inside the bailey were a 16th-century house and two rzth- to 13th-century buildings, running N.-S. and containing hearths. A worn cobbled surface ran around the counterscarp of the motte ditch. The bailey was extended by ditches running southward, destroying part of the causeway, which yielded no material later than the 14th century
A Romano-British timber structure and pits were found beneath the E. ramparts.
There was evidence of a timber structure upon the summit of the motte which was surrounded by a ditch. The mound was constructed upon an earlier defensive ditch associated with a stepped and revetted rampart. This in turn was preceded by a palisaded enclosure, the trench of which was secondary to two occupation-layers. Extra-mural buildings of early medieval date were discovered to the W. on the line of an old road leading down to the ford across the R. Tame. (Med. Arch. 1971)
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 Reference | SP141900 |
| Latitude | 52.5081596374512 |
| Longitude | -1.79235005378723 |
| Eastings | 414190 |
| Northings | 290050 |
