The Gatehouse website record for Tenbury Wells Castle Tump

In the civil parish of Burford. In the historic county of Worcestershire (Modern Authority of Shropshire, 1974 county of Shropshire).

The monument includes a small motte castle and an earthen causeway standing on the flood plain of the River Teme. The motte is visible as a well defined earthen mound 25m in diameter at base rising 3.6m high to a level summit 4m in diameter. There is no ditch surrounding the mound, rather it stands on a slight island raised 0.8m above the surrounding level of the flood plain. This raised platform is linked to the northern edge of the flood plain by the remains of an earthen causeway which runs from the north east edge of the platform as a low spread bank 8m wide and 0.4m high, orientated north east to south west. (EH Scheduling report 1994)
The Town of Tenbury Wells is in Worcestershire but this motte is now just over the county boundary and in Burford parish, Shropshire. The 1884 OS map shows the county boundary to loop around the tump, away from its modern line following the modern course of the river Teme, so as to include the tump in Worcestershire. I suspect the boundary follows an old course of the river which would have put the tump at the neck of a looping meander in a naturally moated site. A fragment of this meander survives as a drainage ditch up to Lineage Farm, the rest roughly following the line of the modern A456 road. Although no bailey is recorded the lost meander would have enclosed a area which would have been a good sized bailey (approx 300m by 75m), well protected by the natural river defences. The change in river course and the heavy erosion of the earthworks make this castle seem rather smaller and less significant than was probably the case. Philip Barker writes there is some doubt as to this being a motte although he believed it was one, otherwise seems to be completely accepted as a motte.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SO59406862

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 110775
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 01152 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes. I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from any site without proper recording and reporting. Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get with this site.