This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.
We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?
If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.
Latitude: 51.7159 / 51°42'57"N
Longitude: -2.6284 / 2°37'42"W
OS Eastings: 356682.803948
OS Northings: 202090.654409
OS Grid: SO566020
Mapcode National: GBR JP.31K0
Mapcode Global: VH87G.D4BG
Entry Name: Motte Castle 57m south-west of Church of St Mary Magdalene
Scheduled Date: 3 April 2012
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1407096
County: Gloucestershire
Civil Parish: Hewelsfield and Brockweir
Traditional County: Gloucestershire
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Gloucestershire
Church of England Parish: Hewelsfield St Mary Magdalene
Church of England Diocese: Gloucester
The earthwork and buried remains of a medieval motte castle, known as Hewelsfield Castle Tump.
Source: Historic England
The castle stands on a north-facing slope, below the summit of the ridge. The flat-topped mound is oval in plan, measuring approximately 27m N-S x 24m W-E at its base, and some 14m across the top. In order to create a level building platform, in relation to the sloping ground on which its stands, the height of the motte increases from south-north where the natural slope appears to have been artificially enhanced. Some scattered stones, which appear to have been worked are on the platform, although it is not clear if these are later than the original phase of construction. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the motte, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled over the years but will survive as a buried feature, approximately 5m wide.
Traces of a possible ditched enclosure which may have been either an incomplete or denuded bailey can be seen on aerial photographs as cropmarks on the northern side of the motte. The entrance to the platform appears to have been from the south side. Some scattered stones which appear to have been worked, are present on the surface, although it is not clear if these are later than the original phase of construction.
Extent of Scheduling: the monument boundary includes the mound and its infilled ditch, which is some 5m wide, plus a 2m margin around the motte for its support and protection.
Source: Historic England
The motte castle at Hewelsfield is designated for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: the earthwork remains, which include the motte, survive well and have been little altered.
* Potential: the expectation that evidence of the construction and use of the castle mound will survive below the earth's surface is partially borne out by the evidence of stonework on the surface of the mound.
* Group value: with the nearby C12 Church of St Mary Magdalene (Grade II*).
Source: Historic England
Other
Fiona Small and Cathy Stoertz, The Forest of Dean Mapping Project, Gloucestershire: A report for the National Mapping Programme, English Heritage, (2006)
Source: Historic England
Other nearby scheduled monuments