Lingen Castle

Summary

Motte and bailey castle 205m east of The Turn Farm.

Reasons for Designation

Motte and bailey castles are medieval fortifications introduced into Britain by the Normans. They comprised a large conical mound of earth or rubble, the motte, surmounted by a palisade and a stone or timber tower. In a majority of examples an embanked enclosure containing additional buildings, the bailey, adjoined the motte. Motte castles and motte-and-bailey castles acted as garrison forts during offensive military operations, as strongholds, and, in many cases, as aristocratic residences and as centres of local or royal administration. Built in towns, villages and open countryside, motte and bailey castles generally occupied strategic positions dominating their immediate locality and, as a result, are the most visually impressive monuments of the early post-Conquest period surviving in the modern landscape. Over 600 motte castles or motte-and-bailey castles are recorded nationally, with examples known from most regions. As one of a restricted range of recognised early post-Conquest monuments, they are particularly important for the study of Norman Britain and the development of the feudal system. Although many were occupied for only a short period of time, motte castles continued to be built and occupied from the 11th to the 13th centuries, after which they were superseded by other types of castle.

Despite some earth moving activity the earthworks of the motte and bailey castle 205m east of The Turn Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the construction of the castle its development, social, political economic and strategic significance, longevity, domestic arrangements, abandonment and overall landscape context.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 26 May 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

This monument includes a motte and bailey castle situated on level ground between two tributaries to the Lime Brook. The motte survives as a circular mound measuring up to 37.8m in diameter at the base and up to 6.7m high above a surrounding dry ditch with a large western rectangular bailey measuring approximately 76m long by 51m wide and defined by a scarp to the north and east and by a ditch and rampart bank to the west with an additional outer bank to the south. Traces of the outer stonework of the curtain wall to the bailey have been exposed in some places within the surviving bank and on the summit of the motte the foundations of a polygonal tower or shell keep and a twin towered western gatehouse have also been noted. It is known locally as ‘Lingen Castle’.

Documentary evidence records that the castle was held in 1086 on behalf of the Mortimer’s by Turstin or Thurston the Fleming and his family later took the name of Lingen and became considerable landholders in Herefordshire.

The further earthworks of an associated deserted medieval settlement are not included in the scheduling because they have not been formally assessed, but other similar monuments in the vicinity are scheduled separately.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

HE 111

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 106359, Herefordshire SMR 1669

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