Castle Neroche, Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset: An Earthwork Survey by English Heritage
Author(s): Phil Newman, Elaine Jamieson
Castle Neroche is a complex defended earthwork site, situated in the north-eastern sector of the Blackdown Hills AONB in Somerset. The earthworks comprise a series of banks and ditches and a matte. Occupation of the site is undocumented but 20th-century excavations have identified 11th-nu1 12th-century occupation, with at least four phases of construction, though failed to establish its earliest origins. The character of parts of the earthworks are highly suggestive of a substantial prehistoric phase. Though no excavated material has been identified to confirm this. The English Heritage survey was undertaken at the request of the Forestry Commission, who, manage the site, as an aid to future conservation of the earthworks. The detailed analysis which this survey has also facilitated has enabled a radical re-evaluation of the remains and new interpretations are presented. These ideas are not claimed to be definitive, but merely alternative options which will hopefully simulate further debate and encourage and help steer future research.
- Report Number:
- 137/2003
- Series:
- Other
- Pages:
- 30
- Keywords:
- Ceramic Medieval Pottery Prehistoric Stone Stone, Worked Survey Earthwork
