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Philip Davis
About
the
Federation
List
of Fortifications and Castles
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Upton
Castle, Lewannick
In the
civil parish of Lewannick.
In the historic county of Cornwall (Modern
Authority of Cornwall, 1974 county of
Cornwall).
Remains
of a possible fortified manor house of early medieval date, surviving
as a walled courtyard containing the remains of enclosures or
buildings. Drystone hall in court with thick drystone wall. Called
Motte/ringwork in Higham.
This site
has been described as a Fortified Manor House /
Timber Castle;
Fortified Manor House :A high status fortified residence not
capable of withstanding an army but able to resist an armed band. They
are generally moated and have a gatehouse with loops and
crenellations. They tend to be sited with much less consideration for
tactical and strategic defence and with domestic considerations, such
as ease of access, to the fore. The difference between a small castles
and a fortified manor house is a subjective one and may well be an
artificial division in that for contemporary medieval citizens it may
not have existed. David King did not use this term and preferred the
term Strong House, since not all fortified high status houses were
manorial, but use of his term Strong House has not been widely adopted
possible because it is widely used as a synonym for bastle. Such
buildings did not require a licence to crenellate and having a licence
to crenellate does not mean a building was certainly fortified.
However, I have recorded all buildings issued a licence to crenellate
under this group since they clearly were at least intended to be [re]constructed
in a fortified style.
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 Certain.
Masonry
ruins/remnants remains.
This site
is a scheduled
monument protected by law.
The
Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX24547897
Sources
of information, references and further reading
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Books
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Higham,
Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified
Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W.,
Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter
Press) p136-43
Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall
(Malvern) p47
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus)
Vol1 p77
Page, Wm (ed), 1906, VCH Cornwall Vol1 p466
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Journal
Articles
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Peter,
D.B., 1902-3, Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall Vol15
p114
Malan, A.H., 1886-9, Journal of the Royal Institute of
Cornwall Vol9 p344-5 [plan]
Pattison and Rodd, 1872, Journal of the Royal Institute of
Cornwall Vol4 p73-4
Most of the sites or buildings recorded
in this web site are NOT open to the
public and permission to visit a site must always be
sought from the landowner or tenant
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The information on this web page may be
derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of
English
Heritage and other individuals and organisations.
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It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled
Monument without consent. It is a destruction of
everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence
from any site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal
detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
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resource as possible by contacting
me if you see errors or if you can add information.
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THE GATEHOUSE 
