Chirbury Kings Orchard

In the civil parish of Chirbury With Brompton. In the historic county of Shropshire (Modern Authority of Shropshire, 1974 county of Shropshire).

PastScape records as "The remains of a ringwork, field bank and ridge and furrow of probable medieval or later date." King writes saxon burg of Cyricbyrig. Excavated in 1958 and no dating evidence found. Chirbury apparently always held in demense along with Montgomery and therefore an unlikely site for a castle.
Revised Scheduling documentation (2001) implies that this earthwork is not the burh itself, which may have been in the core of the village, but a later, medieval, ringwork. The site occupies a commanding ridge top position on the opposite side of the steep-sided valley to the west of the village. The ringwork would appear to have been roughly square originally, though upstanding earthworks are now visible only on two sides: the eastern extent is largely defined by the valley side, and the southern defences have been levelled by cultivation. Buried defensive features also survive. The original access was from the west. [More details of site structure given in source]. A small excavation in 1958 provided only inconclusive dating evidence. Extensive remains of post medieval cultivation strips surround the ringwork on its western and northern sides. The ringwork is a reasonably well-preserved example of a nationally rare type of fortification (most ringworks are circular or irregular rather than square/ rectangular). (Shropshire SMR report of EH scheduling report 2001)
My impression was that of a massive bank in front of the river to the west of the town (facing Wales). The monument is a long bank on both sides of the road, but a roughly 190ft square area to the north of the road has been delimited by a scarp, and in places, a faint bank. I would suggest the square area may possible be an attempt at a castle using part of a pre-existing earthwork (or it may just be a simple enclosure for an orchard) but that fundamentally this monument is the recorded Saxon burghal defence (qv).

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SO25809857

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape Defra ELS number; 105511 County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number; 00498