Down End Castle

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Earthworks of Down End Castle

Down End Castle , also Downend Castle , Chisley Mount or Chidley Mount , is an Outbound Castle in Down End north of the village Dunball in the English county of Somerset . It is considered a Scheduled Monument .

history

Down End Castle was built in what was then the Down End settlement north of Dunball . The Motte had two courtyards north of the mound ; the main castle has one earth wall, the outer castle two. The mound has a diameter of nine meters at the summit and could have covered an existing Viking system . The castle's water supply was once a natural spring at the foot of the mound.

Recent academic research has suggested that the castle must have been built around 1100, when the surrounding Somerset region had calmed down after the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent Anglo-Saxon rebellion against Norman rule. Downend was strategically located as the nearby estuary of the River Parrett was important, especially for trade in the early Middle Ages. Presumably the De Columbers had the castle built, which stood in a defensible place on a natural range of hills and was protected by a few nearby waterways. The family also had Stowey Castle built nearby. Clay vessels and iron parts from Norman and later times were found during the excavations in 1908; they are similar to the finds from the nearby Castle Neroche , which was also built around 1100.

Down End was made a borough in 1225 , but could have existed as a settlement and port since 1159; the De Columbers had been the landlords of the nearby Puriton since the end of the 12th century . However, with the establishment of the Bridgwater settlement and the construction of Bridgwater Castle , Down End harbored stiff competition: Bridgwater ultimately prevailed and Down End fell into disrepair. Today only the earthworks of Down End Castle remain and the site is considered a Scheduled Monument.

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ Chisley Mount, Down End ( English ) Castle Facts. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. 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 July 23, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.castlefacts.info
  2. ^ The Norman Art of War: a Few Well-Positioned Castles . Tempus, Stroud 2006, ISBN 0-7524-3651-1 , p. 88. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b Down End earthworks ( English ) In: Pastscape National Monument Record . Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  4. ↑ Motte and Bailey castle, Down End ( English ) In: Somerset Historic Environment Record . Somerset County Council. Archived from the original on March 3, 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 March 11, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / webapp1.somerset.gov.uk
  5. ↑ Chisley Mount, Down End ( English ) In: Gatehouse Gazetteer . Philip Davis. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  6. ^ The Norman Art of War: a Few Well-Positioned Castles . Tempus, Stroud 2006, ISBN 0-7524-3651-1 , p. 61. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  7. ^ The Norman Art of War: a Few Well-Positioned Castles . Tempus, Stroud 2006, ISBN 0-7524-3651-1 , pp. 88-89. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  8. ↑ a b c d The Norman Art of War: a Few Well-Positioned Castles . Tempus, Stroud 2006, ISBN 0-7524-3651-1 , p. 89. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  9. ↑ The dating of the Down End earthworks sparked considerable academic discourse. Norman remains were found there during the 1908 excavations, but there is no early documentary evidence of a castle at this location, leading early archaeologists to believe an early date for the earthworks to be created. Recent work on Norman castles in Somerset, carried out by Stuart Prior, puts the castle's construction around 1100, with the fortifications covering earlier Viking earthworks.
  10. ↑ AG Chater, F. Albany: Excavations at Downend, near Bridgwater, 1908. In: Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society . No. 55, pp. 162-167, cited in: Clare Gathercole: An Archaeological Assessment of Down End: Somerset Extensive Urban Survey. ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. Somerset County Council, Taunton 2003, p. 5. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.somerset.gov.uk
  11. ^ Robert Dunning: Somerset Castles . Somerset Books, Tiverton 1995, ISBN 0-86183-278-7 , p. 37.
  12. ↑ Oliver Hamilton Creighton: Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England . Equinox, London 2005, ISBN 1-904768-67-9 , p. 154.
  13. ^ Motte with two baileys immediately east of Bristol Road, Down End ( English ) English Heritage. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. 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 March 11, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / list.english-heritage.org.uk

Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 2.6 ″  N , 2 ° 59 ′ 31.6 ″  W.