Castle Grove: a ringwork 370m north-west of Elmdon church
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1011780
- Date first listed:
- 23-Oct-1992
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1011780
- Date first listed:
- 23-Oct-1992
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Essex
- District:
- Uttlesford (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Elmdon
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 45994 39981
Reasons for Designation
Ringworks are medieval fortifications built and occupied from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the later 12th century. They comprised a small defended area containing buildings which was surrounded or partly surrounded by a substantial ditch and a bank surmounted by a timber palisade or, rarely, a stone wall. Occasionally a more lightly defended embanked enclosure, the bailey, adjoined the ringwork. Ringworks acted as strongholds for military operations and in some cases as defended aristocratic or manorial settlements. They are rare nationally with only 200 recorded examples and less than 60 with baileys. As such, and as one of a limited number and very restricted range of Anglo-Saxon and Norman fortifications, ringworks are of particular significance to our understanding of the period.
Castle Grove survives well as an essentially undisturbed example of a ringwork. It will retain archaeological information pertaining to the occupation of the site and environmental evidence relating to the economy of its inhabitants and the landscape in which they lived.
Details
The monument consists of a ringwork situated on the crest of a north-east facing slope overlooking the River Cam, 370m north-west of Elmdon church. The interior contains a low mound, 45.5m in diameter and up to 1m high, with a level surface, surrounded by a perimeter bank of between 1m and 2m in height; this bank has been levelled on the south-eastern side. Surrounding the interior is a dry ditch, 12m wide and now approximately 1.5m deep.
MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 20679
- Legacy System:
- RSM
Sources
Other
SMR No. 3878, Information from SMR no 3878,
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 28-Jun-2026 at 16:53:09.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.