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Monument Types

• MOTTE AND BAILEY (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (between))

Associated Events

• Levelling of castle motte (c 1833 observations) (Ref: WCM100025)
• Watching brief, King's School drama centre (Ref: WCM100037)
• 18/20 Severn St (Ref: WCM100208)
• Watching brief, Castle Place (Ref: WCM100272)
• 10 College Green (Deanery porch) (Ref: WCM100287)
• Norman defences, Severn Street (Ref: WCM100348)
• Evaluation, Kings School, Severn Street (Ref: WCM100378)
• Cathedral Close (various) (Ref: WCM100555)
• Watching brief, Potters Wheel, Severn Street (Ref: WCM100637)
• Watching brief, Kings School Gardens (Ref: WCM100664)
• Watergate Geophysical survey (Ref: WCM100923)
• Watching brief, Castle Court, Kings School (Ref: WCM100996)
• Building recording, Castle House, College Green, including medieval wall (Ref: WCM100997)
• Excavation, Rear of Castle House, College Green (Ref: WCM100998)
• Fourth Form playground, King's School - watching brief (Ref: WCM101119)
• College Green fibre-optic cable - watching brief (Ref: WCM101120)
• Watching brief, Castle House, College Green (Ref: WCM101126)
• 9 College Green gas pipe (Ref: WCM101159)
• King's School - STW main replacement (Ref: WCM101165)
• King's School - car park works (Ref: WCM101166)
• King's School investigations 2002-03 - overall number (Ref: WCM101167)
• Evaluation, School House, King's School (Ref: WCM101264)
• School House, King's School (Ref: WCM101289)
• Kings School sports hall (Salmon's Leap) (Ref: WCM101700)
• Kings' School SPACE excavation (Area A) (Ref: WCM101941)
• Kings School Space Excavation (Ref: WCM101973)
• King School Space Watching Brief (Ref: WCM101975)

Full description

Norman motte and bailey castle of the immediate post-Conquest period, later partially rebuilt in stone.

Documentary sources
When built, its ditch cut through the monks' cemetery, for which the county Sheriff was cursed by Archbishop Aldred of York (d. Sept.1069). Besieged in 1088. In 1113 it was destroyed by fire along with the rest of the city, and rebuilt, but suffered further fires in 1189 and 1202. In the 1130s it played an active role in the Civil War, changing hands several times, and held out against Matilda's forces in 1139. Besieged again by Stephen in 1152. Refortified by Hugh Mortimer in 1155 against Henry II. Besieged again in 1216, when royalist forces entered Worcester through the castle 'not faithfully watched everywhere'.

In 1217 the northern half of the castle was given back to the Cathedral Priory. The remaining half of the castle housed a royal prison by 1221 (WCM 96019). In the Barons' Wars of the 1260s Worcester was again entered via the old castle. By 1316 the motte (WCM 96018) was let for grazing.

In 1459 citizens of Worcester were allowed to take stone from the old castle for the repair of their walls, bridges and gates. Leland, writing c.1540, described it as 'clean down' and overgrown {1}.

Sheriffs' accounts in the reigns of Henry II and Richard I (1154-89/99) record expenditure on the Tower (probably wooden), motte, gate, bridge, the palisade round the castle, the king's hall, chamber, and the cellars of the king's houses. The motte was repaired in 1198-99 and the gate rebuilt in stone in 1204 {2}. The castle chapel (St Peter the Less, WCM 96020) was first recorded in 12th century. At the partition of the castle site in 1217, the king kept the motte (entrusted to Walter Beauchamp) while the bailey, 'up to the motte tower' was given back to the priory. The division ran through the Great Gate (= Priory Gate?, WCM 96351) then in ruins, and across to 'the causeway leading to the postern gate on the Severn'.

In the Civil War (1646-7) the castle formed part of the city defences. In 1613 a visitation by the Bishop of Worcester reported on the state of the county (former royal) gaol and a tower-like building with a dungeon in it (see WCM 96019); a bridewell was added to the gaol in 1633. The gaol was replaced by a new County Gaol in 1808-14; in 1820-3 the site was sold to the Dean and Chapter, and the gaol buildings were demolished in 1826 {3}. The castle earthworks were bought and levelled by Thomas Eaton, a bookseller and antiquary in 1826-46; for a summary of the process see WCM 100025 and WCM 96018.

Allies

Cartographic sources
Mainley

Pictorial sources
A round stone tower (WCM 96025), not certainly located, was discovered and drawn when the gaol buildings were demolished in 1826 {4}.
Buck, Marlow, the painting of the motte being removed

Field remains.
The curve of Severn Street (former Frog Lane) reflects the course of the southern perimeter of the castle and possibly preceding town fortifications (WCM 96599). The south ditch (WCM 96021) has been the subject of several superficial interventions and one substantial sample: WCM 100348, that proved the ditch to 5.94m, probably nearing the bottom. The ditch was said by Richardson to have been traceable as far as the rear of No.2 Severn Street 'where it ended abruptly deep down against the high retaining wall of a garden adjoining Castle Place. The castle rampart followed the path from Castle Place to the site of the bridge across the ditch {5}. The waters of the Frog Brook were diverted into the ditch, where they drove the medieval and post-medieval Frog Mill (WCM 96024).

Excavations undertaken in advance of construction of the Kings School Space development (WCM101973), demonstrated that the castle bailey rampart reused a linear earthwork feature which was radiocarbon dated to the middle Iron Age.

Although the ditch was beginning to silt up during the medieval period, the outer edge was still an area of intense activity. Much of this related to the drainage of the areas to the south of the castle ditch. The recovery of two rich charred flax assemblages represented either processing waste or storage and provides information on the use of crops along the edge of the city. Possible medieval leather working and disposal of butchered animal carcasses demonstrate the variety of activities undertaken in the area. No evidence was found of the Frog Mill or associated pool, which was previously conjectured to lie within the site.{12}

The ditch was re-cut during the Civil War, during the strengthening of the defences around the city. After the war the ditch was deliberately backfilled and subsequent activities on the site are typical for this part of Worcester.{12}


Over the north side of the former ditch (WCM 96021) are walls (mainly brick but part sandstone wall; WCM 96022 and 96023) retaining a substantial (c.2m) difference in ground level from the King's School site down to Severn Street, in part composed of 19th-century dumped material to level up the school site for building (see WCM 100378). These appear to be consistently late 18th or more probably early 19th century in date and are not part of the castle.

The site of the motte is completely levelled, now gardens, but is represented by a substantial (c.2.5m) terraced drop in ground level from north to south, down to the adjoining garden of 10 College Green. The motte is well recorded in plan and section in 18th and early 19 th-century sources ({6}: note reproduced in Carver 1980, p347 plate 1) {7} {8} {9} [note Beardsmore has incorrect references here]) and in various perspective views etc {10}. The existence of a motte ditch has not been established.

The existence of a distinct/individually defended inner bailey within the castle has not been established. The former north ditch of the castle, assumed filled-in 1217, probably made use of a natural indentation in the riverside gradient now occupied by the Priory Watergate (WCM 100349). Geophysical survey here (WCM 100923) confirmed the presence of a defile (WCM 96616). A subsequent (1999) geophysical survey (WCM 100555) on College Green reported a probable double linear feature crossing the green, probably the castle's northern perimeter earthworks. Phillip Barker drew attention to the sandstone substructure and terrace beneath 10 College Green (WCM 96620) as a possible castle feature {11}, though these now appear more likely to be post-1217 Cathedral Priory structures.

Remains of a two-storey red sandstone building (WCM 96619) embedded in the west side of 6 College Green (Castle House) has been identified as part of the domestic buildings of the Kings house at Worcester, built in the late 12th century and transferred to monastic ownership in 1217. It has been identified as a probable chamber block. Building recording within the rebuilt Castle House (WCM100997) demonstrated the presence of vestigial early post-medieval fabric, including extensive re-use of late medieval timbers in the attics. Other than the western wall (which is largely of Norman date) 18th-Century and earlier structural remains were almost entirely limited to the attic and part of the cellar following extensive re-building in the 19th and very early 20th centuries. Study of the building has revealed something of the process by which the Norman walling of a neighbouring building to the west was incorporated as a party-wall, and subsequent to demolition became an external wall to the present building.{13}

While stone and other castle buildings were more certainly to be anticipated below-ground concentrated in the area of the old gaol and dungeon visited in the early 17th century (WCM 96019), now represented by the main yard of the King's School, this area has also been disturbed by foundations of the gaol from the 17th century onwards and was found during excavation of eleven substantial tree pits to have been thoroughly quarried for building materials, though traces of a burnt floor and waste disposal features relating to the castle were observed (WCM100996).{13}

Updates needed for:
School House work
the SPACE work needs to be added
Allies accounts of the motte, its removal, and stone foundations / outworks
pictures of the motte as sources, including Buck, Marlow, the painting of the motte being removed
maps as sources, specifically Mainley

Sources and further reading

Related records

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