Castlefacts³

Lyminster siege castle

Has been described as a Questionable Siege Work

There are uncertain remains

Name	Lyminster siege castle
Alternative Names	Warningcamp; Pynham
Historic Country	Sussex
Modern Authority	West Sussex
1974 Authority	West Sussex
Civil Parish	Lyminster

500 yards to the south {of Waringcamp} there is another possible site, towards Lyminster. The remains are in the corner of a field now adjancent to the A27, but then close to the old Roman road. On ground rising quite steeply from the Arun, there is a low mound, roughly circular, with a diameter on the top of about 25 feet, and lying to the north there are signs of a bank enclosing a rectangular area stretching about 75 feet from the mound.

The site backs onto still rising ground behind which is a private estate, and the modern road cuts it off to the south, so the demensions of the original can not be recovered. But what remains bears the same relationship towards Arundel Castle as the site at Waringcamp. Perhaps this part of Henry I's blockade, sited within supporting distance of the Waringcamp site, enabling the garrison of one to block the ford, and the other the road? The two works would have been intervisible unless the land was wooded then. (Purton)

Gatehouse Comments

Suggested as a siege work of the 1102 siege of Arundel castle. Nothing is recorded in the archaeological databases although some recorded lynchets may be the reported bank. Purton, himself write he can 'make no claim that they represent a siege earth+ timber fort, only point out that there are modest earthworks there'. It should be noted there was an Augustian priory just opposite this site.This general location, at the end of a causeway over the Arun, is certainly a likely place from some sort of controlling military presence although Gatehouse is not convinced the earthwork mentioned by Purton are evidence of these. The Augustinian priory (called Calcetto - the Latin for causeway) is said to have been founded before 1151 but well after 1102. Was this founded on land that had used as a siege camp?

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record

www.westsussex.gov.uk/leisure/explore_west_sussex/history_of_west_sussex/historic_environment_record.aspx

OS Map Grid Reference	TQ027063
Latitude	50.8470993041992
Longitude	-0.542540013790131
Eastings	502700
Northings	106300