Beoley; The Mount

In the civil parish of Beoley.
In the historic county of Worcestershire (Modern Authority of Worcestershire, 1974 county of Hereford and Worcester).

Flat topped mound, 250ft by 350ft, and surrounded by a large ditch circa 20ft deep with a causeway on the north side. The ditch has been mutilated by large scale clay digging and the top has been ploughed, the plough lines running over the causeway into the interior. The site has been interpreted as a Medieval motte, but it has also been suggested that it can be identified with the 'Burhleahe' or 'camp clearing' mentioned in a charter of 972, and is a pre-Saxon, probably prehistoric, earthwork situated on a gravel cap. Unoccupied during the Saxon period it may have been re-utilised as a minor strong point during C13, subsequently developed as the manor house/hunting lodge of the Beauchamps during the Medieval period and was possibly abandoned in C14. It was recorded by Nash in C18 that 'the last vestiges of the ruins of a castle' could still be seen about 1780.

This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle
Fortified Manor House.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Earthworks remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SP06556940

PastScape number; 328657

Books

Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern) p76
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p280 [slight]
Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p30
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p506
Montgomerie, 1924, in Page, Wm and Willis-Bund, J.W. (eds), VCH, Worcester Vol4 p15, 432

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Beoley; The Mount

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SP06556940

Sources of information, references and further reading