Wiltshire and Swindon Sites and Monument Record Information

SMR Number

SU06SW457

Site Name

Devizes Castle

Grid Ref

SU00226132

Parish

Devizes

Photographs

Images for Devizes (if available)

District

Kennet

Site Type

Castle

Period

Late Medieval

Scheduled Monument

SM28887

Finds

Stone (building material); Iron;Ceramics;Ceramic tile

X Y Grid Ref

400220, 161320

Altitude

137.16 metres

Geology

Upper Greensand

Description

Site of a Medieval castle.

Details

A)Castle site on small promontory before 1113AD when it burnt down. Re-built c1120 by Bishop Roger. Wooden keep, rampart, entrance on N, outer bailey defended by bank and ditch on NE side. B)Excavation in 1994 revealed large ditch under Corn Exchange. B)Re-scheduled 07/03/2005. A motte and bailey castle, although the castle as it appears today is a Victorian folly, built on the motte of the original castle, whose moat survives together with part of the inner bailey. The east side of the castle grounds encompass the bailey, and enclosing the whole area is a stone-built wall. The Victorian Gothic style house is thought to sit on the site of the stone keep. It is thought that the stone keep stood on the south east part of the motte, which is the highest part, and was the earliest building on the site. The aisled hall was to the west of the keep. Surrounding the motte is a ditch, which varies in depth and width, but is approximately 4m deep and varying between 10m and over 30m wide. On the east side of the ditch are the remains of the inner bailey. Map evidence shows that it originally extended further east and beyond it was a second bailey. The whole the site is surrounded by a curtain wall which may lie on the line of an original Medieval wall. This wall is a Listed Building Grade II, and bears evidence of Medieval masonry, particularly in the gateway, but appears to be a largely Victorian construction and is excluded from the Scheduling. Map evidence indicates that the original entrance of the castle was an approach from the NNW. C) Trench 3 of an evaluation revealed a ditch interpreted as the medieval outer bailey ditch of the castle. It is approximately 8m wide and 3.3m deep, passing east to west across the evaluation site.at SU00376165. It contained residual medieval pottery including one sherd of Kennet Valley ware of the 12th/13th century and four sandy wares of the 14th/15th century and one ridge tile fragment.

Sources

Corn Exchange, Devizes 1994 Wessex Archaeology

A) Wiltshire Towns, The archaeological potential p19 1976 Haslam, Jeremy

X) Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 40, p417-29

X) Journal of the British Archaeological Association 24, p129-163

X) Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 70-1, p137

X) Devizes Museum 1974.24 1974 Devizes Museum

X) Devizes Museum 1989.238 1989 Devizes Museum

X) Castles of Great Britain p81-157 1966 Toy, Sidney

X) Medieval Archaeology Vol 36, p271(322)

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