Castle Neroche

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Eastern earthworks on Castle Neroche

Castle Neroche is an Outbound castle near the village of Courland in the English county of Somerset . The Norman moth was built on the site of an earlier hill fort. Today the site is a Scheduled Monument .

Location

Map of the castle grounds

On the northern upswing of the Blackdown Hills , the hill rises to 260 meters above sea level. The site is part of a 90 km² area covered by a landscape partnership called the Neroche Scheme . There hiking trails and a public forest have been created. It is administered by the Forestry Commission and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and local organizations.

history

The origins of the name Neroche are said to be a contraction of the two Old English words Nierra and Rechich or Rachich (English: "revenge"), a hunting dog breed that was widely used in Great Britain in the Middle Ages. Thus the name in German means something like: "Camp where the hunting dogs are kept". This is how the alternative name "Castle Rache" came about.

Iron age

The reason for the construction of Iron Age ramparts is often disputed. It has been suggested that they may have been military installations in response to invasions from mainland Europe, or they could have been built by the invaders. Another possibility is that they were a military reaction to social tensions caused by the growing population and the resulting pressure on agriculture. The prevailing view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron has led to social changes in Britain. Iron ore deposits were located in different places than the sources of tin and copper needed to make bronze, and so trade structures changed and the old elites lost their economic and social status. Believing population growth played a role, archaeologist Barry Cunliffe wrote that “[the ramparts] offered the community a means of defense when tensions [resulting from population growth] turned into acts of war. But I don't think they were built because of a state of war. They probably served as defensive positions in the event of a tension and no doubt some of them were attacked and destroyed, but that was not the only, not even the most important reason for their construction. ”Today only a few traces of the Iron Age remain on Castle Neroche preserved, but the location and shape of the site corresponds to other Iron Age enclosures. There are indications that the area was protected by an additional curtain wall and an external fence.

The site was excavated in 1903 by H. St. George Gray . There have also been archaeological finds of Mesolithic flint nearby, and a bronze age copper ax was found in 1857, but there have been no finds from the Iron or Roman ages.

Norman castle

The earthworks on the castle grounds are larger than one would normally expect in a castle from the Norman era, which fueled speculation that earlier structures had been used there.

The Norman castle was probably built by Robert de Conteville in the 11th century. Archaeological evidence indicates that the castle was built in different phases, the first of which was the construction of a curtain wall around a site of 3 hectares. Soon after the Norman conquest of England , a smaller, inner ring mill was built. The property was later redesigned into a moth , with one corner of the 6-meter high mound serving as a barbican .

At the beginning of the 12th century the castle was no longer in regular use. In the mid-century civil war of anarchy , however, it was used again. At the end of the 12th century it could have served administrators of the surrounding royal forest as a base of operations against poachers .

Plane crash

On November 22, 1945 crashed Consolidated B-24 of the Royal Air Force on a field after trees in the '' Blackdown Hills '' between the castle and the village of Buckland St Mary had grazed. All 27 inmates died.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Castle Neroche . In: National Monument Record . English Heritage. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  2. ↑ Welcome to Neroche . Neroche Scheme. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  3. ^ Key archaeological & historic places . Neroche Project. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Castle Neroche, Curland . In: Somerset Historic Environment Record . Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 12, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / webapp1.somerset.gov.uk
  5. ^ Niall Sharples: English Heritage Book of Maiden Castle . BT Batsford 1991. ISBN 0-7134-6083-0 . Pp. 71-72.
  6. ↑ Time Team: Swords, skulls and strongholds . Channel 4. May 19, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  7. ^ Castle Neroche . Forestry Commission. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  8. ^ Castle Neroche Hillfort. . Digital digging. Archived from the original on May 23, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 27, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / digitaldigging.co.uk
  9. ^ Castle name and mesolithic finds, Castle Neroche . In: Somerset Historic Environment Record . Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 12, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / webapp1.somerset.gov.uk
  10. ^ Bronze age ax find, Castle Neroche . In: Somerset Historic Environment Record . Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 12, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / webapp1.somerset.gov.uk
  11. ^ Lesley Adkins, Roy Adkins: A Field Guide to Somerset Archeology . Dovecote Press, Stanbridge 1992. ISBN 0-946159-94-7 . Pp. 56-57.
  12. ^ A b Robert Dunning: Somerset Castles . Somerset Books, Tiverton 1995. ISBN 978-0-86183-278-1 . Pp. 33-35.
  13. ^ Air crash on Blackdowns (PDF) Somerset County Gazette. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  14. ↑ Air crash. Liberator hits hillside near Buckland (PDF) Retrieved February 12, 2016.

literature

  • H. St. George Gray: Excavation at Castle Neroche in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society . Issue 49 (1904), pp. 23-53.
  • EJ Burrow: Ancient Earthworks and Camps of Somerset . 1924.
  • BK Davidson: Castle Neroche, an abandoned Norman fortress in South Somerset in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society . Issue 116 (1972). Pp. 16-58.

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '13.2 "  N , 3 ° 2' 14.6"  W.