Week St Mary

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

Motte, or ringwork, is some 42m in diameter. The rampart rises up to 1.5m above an outer ditch which has an average depth of 0.4m. The interior is 0.8m above the outer ground surface level, and there is a platform 0.3m high and some 8m square in the centre. The entrance is through a causeway on the north east side.

This site has been described as a Timber Castle;

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.

Cropmarks/slight earthworks remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX23649775

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

PastScape number; 436512

Books
- 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
  Spreadbury, I. D., 1984, Castles in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Redruth)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p77
Journal Articles
- Preston-Jones, A. and Rose, P., 1992, 'Week St Mary, town and castle' Cornish Archaeology Vol31 p143-53
  1982-3, Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology annual report Vol8 p10
  1982, Medieval Village Research Group annual report Vol30 p6
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol3 p90-127

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