Hawridge Court ringwork is a small, well-preserved medieval fortification located in Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards, in Buckinghamshire, England. Ringworks are relatively rare in the UK, and date from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the later 12th century. The site was designated a scheduled monument in 1996. It is under the care of English Heritage.
Hawridge Court ringwork, in Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards, Buckinghamshire is a good example of a ringwork, a type of medieval fortified defensive structure. It is located south of Hawridge Common, on the western side of a valley between the Chesham Vale and Cholesbury. The site consists of a small but strongly defended medieval fortification, oval in layout. Its earthworks stand to almost their full height, and are mostly intact with its surviving entranceway. [1]
The interior of the ringwork measures approximately 60 m (200 ft) east to west, and 45 m (148 ft) north to south. It is surrounded by an earthen bank and external ditch. The bank varies between 8 m (26 ft) and 12 m (39 ft) in width. It rises nearly 5 m (16 ft) above the interior, the vertical sides leading to a narrow path along the top of the earthworks. [1] The original entrance survives to the east, where a causeway, 12 m (39 ft) in width, passes through the bank and the ditch. [2]
Ringworks are a type of medieval fortification that date from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the late 12th century. They typically consist of a small defended area surrounded by a large ditch and bank. A timber fence or more rarely a stone wall would be built above the defensive earthworks. Inside the ringed defenses were buildings. Ringworks were used either for military operations or were built to defend manorial settlements. There are only 200 surviving examples of ringworks in the UK. [1]
The Hawridge Court ringwork was most likely built after the Norman Conquest. The first recorded evidence of this medieval fortification appears in the 13th century, when the fortification was documented as belonging to the manor of Hawridge. The manor house buildings, which were probably built in the centre of the ringwork are believed to have been replaced by a new set of structures in the 16th century. [1]
The northern section of the ringwork was removed several years later and its site was covered by an 18th-century farmhouse. The house was remodeled and enlarged in the early 1900s, and the interior of the ringwork was used as part of the layout in the gardens. [2]
The site was designated a scheduled monument in 1996. The surviving structures within the ringwork are not included in the scheduling, but the underground areas beneath these buildings are included in order to safeguard any earlier features that lie below ground. It is under the care of English Heritage. [1]
St Leonards is a small village in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is 3 miles east of Wendover and 4 miles south of Tring, Hertfordshire. A short section of Grim's Ditch delineates the northern end of the village, which lies within the civil parish of Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards.
Cholesbury is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, on the border with Hertfordshire. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wendover, 5 mi (8.0 km) north of Chesham and 5 mi (8.0 km) from Berkhamsted.
Hawridge, is a small village in the Chilterns in the county of Buckinghamshire, England and bordering the county boundary with Hertfordshire. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) from Chesham, 4 miles (6.4 km) from both Tring and Berkhamsted. Hawridge is one of four villages comprising Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards, a civil parish within Chiltern District.
Grim's Ditch is a series of linear earthwork in the Chilterns. A complete outline cannot be identified but separate sections exist over a 30-kilometre (19 mi) span between Bradenham, Buckinghamshire, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and as far as Pitstone and Ivinghoe Buckinghamshire. Pottery shards have been unearthed in excavations during the 1970s and 1980s suggesting that its origin may have been during the Iron Age and was believed to have been during a period when the landscape was clearer of scrub and the dense woodland than today as the straighter sections would have required clear lines of sight. The first mention of Grim's Ditch was a grant of 1170–90 in the Missenden Cartulary referring to it as Grimesdic. The Anglo Saxons commonly named features of unexplained or mysterious origin Grim. The word derives from the Norse word grimr meaning devil and a nickname for Odin or Wodin the God of War and Magic. Another mention is to be found in a 10th-century Anglo Saxon boundary charter for the Mongewell area.
Buckland Common is a hamlet in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wendover and the same distance south of Tring in Hertfordshire with which it shares a boundary. The northern end of the settlement is delineated by a short section of Grim's Ditch. It is in the civil parish of Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards.
Buckton Castle was a medieval enclosure castle near Carrbrook in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, England. It was surrounded by a 2.8-metre-wide (9 ft) stone curtain wall and a ditch 10 metres (33 ft) wide by 6 metres (20 ft) deep. Buckton is one of the earliest stone castles in North West England and only survives as buried remains overgrown with heather and peat. It was most likely built and demolished in the 12th century. The earliest surviving record of the site dates from 1360, by which time it was lying derelict. The few finds retrieved during archaeological investigations indicate that Buckton Castle may not have been completed.
Nico Ditch is a six-mile (9.7 km) long linear earthwork between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford in Greater Manchester, England. It was dug as a defensive fortification, or possibly a boundary marker, between the 5th and 11th century.
Loughor Castle is a ruined, medieval fortification located in the town of Loughor, Wales. The castle was built around 1106 by the Anglo-Norman lord Henry de Beaumont, during the Norman invasion of Wales. The site overlooked the River Loughor and controlled a strategic road and ford running across the Gower Peninsula. The castle was designed as an oval ringwork, probably topped by wicker fence defences, and reused the remains of the former Roman fort of Leucarum.
Ashton Keynes Castle was a castle in the village of Ashton Keynes, near to the town of Cricklade in Wiltshire, England. It is also known as Hall's Close, while locals call it The Battlefield. The scheduled monument consists of a ringwork and bailey 100 metres (330 ft) west of Kentend Farm.
Bletchingley Castle is a ruined castle and set of earthworks partly occupied by three buildings. The Scheduled Ancient Monument is directly beside the Greensand Way below it to the south in the village of Bletchingley in Surrey. The site's tower standing from c.1170 to 1264 had a panorama from one of the narrower parts of the Greensand Ridge, which runs from mid-Kent to south-west Surrey.
Clavering Castle remains are situated in the small parish village of Clavering in the county of Essex, England, 50m north of the church of St Mary and St Clement on the southern bank of the River Stort, some 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of Bishop's Stortford.
Deddington Castle is an extensive earthwork in the village of Deddington, Oxfordshire, all that remains of an 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle, with only the earth ramparts and mound now visible.
Eaton Socon Castle was a Norman fortification. It was constructed next to the River Great Ouse in what is now Eaton Socon, Cambridgeshire, England.
Coldred is a settlement in the Shepherdswell with Coldred civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, England. The main part of the village is Coldred Street which lies 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) to the south-west.
Thetford Castle is a medieval motte and bailey castle in the market town of Thetford in the Breckland area of Norfolk, England. The first castle in Thetford, a probable 11th-century Norman ringwork called Red Castle, was replaced in the 12th century by a much larger motte and bailey castle on the other side of the town. This new castle was largely destroyed in 1173 by Henry II, although the huge motte, the second largest man-made mound in England, remained intact. The motte, recognised as a scheduled monument, now forms part of a local park, and the remains are known variously as Castle Hill, Castle Mound and Military Parade.
While there are many castles in South Yorkshire, the majority are manor houses and motte-and-bailey which were commonly found in England after the Norman Conquest.
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles without the motte. Defences were usually earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank surrounding the site.
Cholesbury Camp is a large and well-preserved Iron Age hill fort on the northern edge of the village of Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is roughly oval-shaped and covers an area, including ramparts, of 15 acres (6.1 ha), and measures approximately 310 m (1,020 ft) north-east to south-west by 230 m (750 ft) north-west to south-east. The interior is a fairly level plateau which has been in agricultural use since the medieval period. The hill fort is now a scheduled ancient monument.
The Scheduled Ancient Monument of Alloway Mote, also known as the Alloway Moat or Alloway Motte, is a roughly circular earthwork that is regarded as a possible early medieval ringwork, located near the village of Alloway in South Ayrshire, Scotland.
There are 121 scheduled monuments in the county of Buckinghamshire, in England. These protected sites date from the Neolithic period and include barrows, moated sites, ruined abbeys, Iron Age hillforts, a medieval hospital and a holy well. In the United Kingdom, the scheduling of monuments was first initiated to insure the preservation of "nationally important" archaeological sites or historic buildings. The protection given to scheduled monuments is given under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979