St Erth

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Carhangives; Carnhangibes

In the civil parish of St Erth.
In the historic county of Cornwall (Modern Authority of Cornwall, 1974 county of Cornwall).

Spreadbury writes "Vanished castle of Richard FitzTurold." Lewis writes "In the churchyard, and in the village, are the remains of ancient crosses; and near the vicarage-house is a double circular intrenchment, called Carhangives, supposed to have been the site of a baronial castle." Leland writes "And not far from the bridge there was a castle, so it seems, or a manor house now completely demolished, which was called Carnhangibes. Some say that Dinham was lord of this place, and many knights and gentlemen owed suit to his court."

This site has been described as a Timber Castle:

These are the earthwork and timber castles of the motte and bailey or ringwork form which where the vast majority of castles of the early conquest period, of the Marches in the 11th and 12th centuries and of the period during the reign of Stephen known as the Anarchy. They were generally fairly short lived, although some such castles survived for centuries, with the timber buildings and defences being replaced on occasions sometimes in timber and sometimes in Masonry (Alderton Castle in Northamptonshire was shown in a Time Team excavation to have been built about 1070 and to still have been having high status visitors in the C15-a fine piece of enamels horse harness being found in the gatehouse). Some of the smaller low mottes may have been adapted into moated manor houses, whilst others where abandoned and replaced by manor houses of a more comfortable and domestic nature. Timber castles varied greatly in size with some being massive constructions clearly deserving the term castle, whilst other were small mounds of minor knights and had a similar size, function and social status as the later pele towers. These small mottes are called 'castle' but this could be considered a rather loose use of the term.

The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.

Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SW5534

Modern Map from

Good for landscape form and features

Modern Map from

Good for general location

Air Photo from

1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

Books
- Spreadbury, I. D., 1984, Castles in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Redruth)
  Lewis, Samuel (ed), 1848, A topographical Dictionary of England [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=50950#s7]
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p70

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