Monument Type(s):

• BAILEY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

Scheduled Monument: The outer area of Shrewsbury Castle, which originally extended right across Castle Street, and nearly as far south as St Mary's Water Lane. Created by clearance of part of the Saxon town and protected by large ramparts in the 11th century, it had been largely incorporated into the growing medieval town by the end of the 13th.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA7574 - 1999 WB on planting of a millennium tree, Outer Bailey, Shrewsbury Castle by Jo Barnes
• ESA4718 - 1999-2000 WB on Shrewsbury South Central (Phase 2) Water Mains Renewal by SCCAS
• ESA7890 - 2001 Assessment of the buried archaeology of Shrewsbury Castle by Nigel Baker
• ESA8160 - 2017 DBA of Dana Footpath Extension, Shrewsbury by SCAS (Ref: 15/02663/FUL)

Description

The existence of the outer bailey is demonstrable from documentary evidence for the sale or grant of properties in ballio castri or in ballia ante castrum. The earliest such reference noted by Blakeway was of 1167; Blakeway suggested that the bailey disappeared as a distinct part of the town by the gradual alienation of properties within it held by the king's tenants [<1>]. Hobbs (1954) notes an Inquisition of 1278 which found that there were then 14 burgages in the bailey [<3>]. Excavations at Rigg's Hall (site 60247) found an earth dump, interpreted as a rampart (62501), stratified between late Saxon pits and the 13th-century town wall (62515). It contained two sherds of probable 12th-century pottery and a greater quantity of residual late Saxon material [<2>]. Not being found at any other town-wall sites in the town it was interpreted as a feature that was distinct to the castle area; topographical evidence (the curve of School Gardens, the narrowing of Castle Street, curving property boundaries beyond) suggests strongly that this was part of the outer bailey defences (see 62500, 62502, 62503). The excavated rampart may possibly (unless the two 12th-century sherds were intrusive) have been a secondary feature, replacing earlier defences: it seems likely that the outer bailey, or at least a cleared area of similar extent, was a feature of the 11th-century castle, from which the 51 tenements recorded in Domesday were cleared <4>

The excavation of a tree planting hole for a millennium tree was monitored by Jo Barnes, presumably in 1999. This only encountered garden and landscaping deposits associated with the importing of soil in the 20th century to create the the current gardens and flower beds outside the Castle’s inner bailey. The imported material seals an earlier buried soil horizon probably associated with the demolition of the nineteenth century property, which fronted onto Castle Gates. <5>

A detailed analysis of the archaeological and historical development of the castle, prepared in 2001, by Nigel Baker, in connection with the preparation of a conservation plan for the castle. This contains a detailed description of the development of the outer bailey, largely following the UAD analysis. See individual child records, as detailed in <4> for further details. <6><6a>

A desk based assessment was prepared in 2017 in association with proposals for an extension to the Dana Footpath in an area of the outer bailey of the castle, to the north and west of Castle Gates House. <7>

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.