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Summary

Scheduled defensive star-shaped earthworks, constructed around the castle by Royalists in 1643 and besieged intermittently until 1646

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Registered Park or Garden (II) 1000534: Donnington Grove
• Scheduled Monument 1007926: DONNINGTON CASTLE: A QUADRANGULAR CASTLE AND 17TH CENTURY FIELDWORK.

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 01041.01.000
  

Monument Type(s):

• FORTIFICATION (17th century - 1643 AD to 1644 AD)
• GUN EMPLACEMENT (17th century - 1643 AD to 1644 AD)

Full Description

OUTER EARTHWORK DEFENCES CONSTRUCTED 1643 (SHORTLY AFTER THE FIRST BATTLE OF NEWBURY) AT A COST OF £1000 TO THE GARRISON GOVERNOR-COLONEL (LATER SIR JOHN) BOYS. NUMEROUS FINDS DATING FROM THIS PERIOD FROM AREA OF CASTLE.

The 17th century 'star' fort is perhaps the leading example of its kind in the United Kingdom <1>. The bulwarks were probably made with ditch and palisades of earth, revetted with wood, and perhaps topped by wool packs. The arrangement of banks, ditches and bastions was illustrated in Grose's Military Antiquities <2>,<3>; an interpretative drawing of the fortifications being constructed has also appeared in Harrington's publication <4>.

Scheduling description <9>: The 17th century Civil War earthworks, surrounding the lower slopes of the hill, are the remains of a fortification built on the style of Italian Renaissance 'star' artillery defences, the diamond shaped projections being designed to provide the defending gun emplacements with a wide field of fire. Originally it is likely that the rampart was faced with a wooden revettment and that vertical stakes occupied the bottom of the ditch. Today these defences survive as a series of scarps and platforms, averaging 1.7m high. They were constructed by the Royalist garrison under Sir John Boys, the castle being taken by the king from the Parliamentarian John Packer in 1643.

The earthworks were surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1961 at a scale of 1:2500 <12><13>. They were also transcribed from good quality air photographs [not specified] by the Berkshire National Mapping Programme <14>. The castle is positioned on the south-eastern end of a pronounced ridge and the enclosing earthwork is defined by a single bank for most of its length. At the south-east end it is defined by a double bank and single ditch <14>.

These earthworks were used to illustrate Historic England’s 2018 publication about nationally important Civil War earthworks <15>.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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