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INTRODUCTION Location and history Langley is situated about 13km south-southeast of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, within the modern civil parish of Ruckley and Langley. It lies on the northern edge of a short but broad valley, which runs northeastwards from the end of the Caer Caradoc/Lawley outcrop to open out into the upper Severn Valley. Langley is now little more than a placename, the remaining structures consisting of a post-medieval chapel, a 19th century farmhouse (Langley Hall) and its outbuildings, and a gatehouse (Fig. 1). Langley Gatehouse is the only surviving structure of a moated medieval manor, Langley Hall, although the earthworks of former fishponds and water management systems are also still visible to the east and south of the present farm and farmyard. The gatehouse is a Grade II* listed building, though for many years it has been in a condition of some decay. The gatehouse is currently being restored by the Landmark Trust and converted for use as holiday-let accommodation. Langley is first mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 (Thorne, 1986), when it was held by Thored from Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury. Before the conquest, Langley had been held by a freeman, Swein. Langley was a smallish settlement, valued at 5s, with « hide paying tax, four slaves, and land for one plough. By the early 13th century, the manor was held by a William Burnel. In 1266 the manor, together with most of the estates once held by William, was acquired by Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Chancellor of England, and a close friend of Edward I. Robert granted the manor of Langley to his relative, Richard, responsible for the building of Langley Place and a nearby chapel of ease. The Burnell family held Langley until 1377, when it passed by marriage to Roger Lee. The Lees, another powerful Shropshire family, held Langley until after the Civil War, when it again passed by marriage to Edward Smythe from County Durham. By the end of the 17th century the Smythes had abandoned Langley Hall as their residence in favour of Acton Burnell, and Langley became a tenanted farmhouse until its demolition in the late 19th century (Morriss 1992). The gatehouse survived the demolition of the rest of the hall complex, although it appears to have been given over to agricultural usage. By the 1970s the gatehouse was in a state of dereliction, supported by scaffolding, a condition in which it remained until its restoration in 1992 by the Landmark Trust. A more detailed account of the documented history of the manor can be found in the introduction to the recent structural survey of the gatehouse by the City of Hereford Archaeology Unit (Morriss, 1992). Previous Work In recent years, Langley Gatehouse has been the subject of a number of structural surveys and small scale trial excavations. In 1968, the building was examined by the Shrewsbury Old Houses Research Group (Moran, 1970). An archaeological building recording exercise conducted by Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit in 1987 on behalf of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission included the archaeological excavation of a number of trial trenches in the vicinity of the gatehouse (Ferris, 1987). Both these surveys concluded that the structure of the gatehouse contained evidence for a number of separate phases of construction. The Birmingham University trial excavations also revealed the presence of a former road surface through the gate passage, and yard surfaces on either side of the building. In 1991, the archaeological excavation of porosity test holes was undertaken on behalf of the Landmark Trust by the Archaeology Unit of the Leisure Services Department of Shropshire County Council (Hannaford, 1991). This work confirmed the presence of archaeologically significant deposits within the area of the farmyard to the east of the gatehouse. 2. AIMS OF THE EXCAVATIONS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDING To accompany the renovation work on the gatehouse, the Landmark Trust commissioned a photographic survey of the building, to be carried out before the start of the repair work, and a structural survey and analytical assessment to be undertaken during the repairs. This work was carried out in 1992 by the City of Hereford Archaeology Unit (Morriss, 1992). Because of the survival of potentially significant archaeological deposits within the area around the gatehouse, demonstrated by the Birmingham University evaluation (Ferris, 1987) and the excavation of test pits (Hannaford, 1991), the Landmark Trust commissioned the Archaeology Unit of the Leisure Services Department, Shropshire County Council, to undertake the archaeological excavation and supervision of groundworks associated with the renovation of the gatehouse. In the first instance, the renovation work would involve disturbance to the ground surface both within and in the immediate environs of the gatehouse. These works were to be carried out under archaeological supervision, with the aim of recording all archaeological levels and deposits relating to the use of the gatehouse prior to its abandonment. It was hoped that this work would contribute to an understanding of the sequence of the development of the structure. Additionally, a number of service trenches were to be cut to the north, south, and east of the gatehouse. These trenches were to be excavated and recorded under archaeological conditions, with the aim of recovering information relating to the internal occupation, development, and use of the moated manorial site. 3. THE EXCAVATIONS Inside the north cell of the gatehouse (Fig. 2, Area B), the renovation work required that the surface of the floor be lowered by about 0.45m, and that a service trench be cut across the floor from west to east to a depth of about 0.8m below the original ground surface. A watching brief accompanied these excavations. The area to the east of the gatehouse was crossed by a number of service trenches, all 0.5m wide and ranging in depth from 0.5 to 0.9m deep (Fig. 2, Trenches C, D, F, K, and L). The installation of a new septic tank and soakaway system required the excavation of further similar sized trenches in the southern and eastern parts of the farmyard (Trenches E, G, H, I and J). A further trench 0.5m wide by 0.45m deep ran south from the southern end of the gatehouse and around the southern edge of the farmhouse garden (Trench M). Whilst the excavation of relatively narrow trenches limited the recovery of dateable artefacts, in all the areas examined a sequence of archaeological features and deposits were revealed, which have been grouped into three main phases (medieval, post-medieval, and modern). Phase 1: Medieval (Fig. 3) The curtain wall, gate passage, and moat Within the area of the north cell of the gatehouse, the natural subsoil lay at depth of 0.5m below the internal ground level and was seen to consist of a light reddish brown sandy clay. The internal footings of the west wall of this northern cell of the gatehouse were cut into this natural subsoil. The footings, however, appeared to be of no great substance in comparison to the size of the wall they supported, consisting of a single course of sandstone blocks 0.3m deep and between 0.25m to 1.0m long. No finds associated with this wall were recovered, and its assignment to this phase is based on the recent structural analyses of the gatehouse (Ferris, 1987 and Morriss, 1992). The lower courses of this west wall of the gatehouse have been interpreted by previous commentators as the remains of the curtain wall around the moated manorial site (Morriss, op.cit.). Two walls ran in an easterly direction from the gateway in the curtain wall, forming a flanked gate passage originally 9m long (the present gate passage is 6m in length) running into the former courtyard area. The foundations of the southern of these two walls were exposed in a service pit cut into the northeast corner of the south cell of the gatehouse. They were seen to consist of a single course of large sandstone blocks 0.4m in height with a rough rebate along the top edge, and they rested directly upon the reddish brown sandy subsoil. The service trenches cut across the east face of the gatehouse revealed the foundation remains of the eastern ends of both the passage walls where they continued beyond their present buttressed ends. Both sets of foundations were constructed of grey sandstone, bonded in brown sandy mortar. The southern wall was 1.16m wide (and no longer had a rebate cut along its top edge), the northern was slightly narrower at 0.95m width (above ground, both walls are of about the same thickness, the southern wall being 0.9m wide, the northern 0.95m wide). These foundation courses survived at a depth of as little as 0.26m below the ground surface, and the base of each wall lay at a depth of 0.7m (about the same level as the base of the internal footings of the curtain wall). The earliest made roadway through the gate passage was constructed of fragments of yellowish brown sandstone in a matrix of compact crushed sandstone and sand of the same colour, laid over a layer of reddish brown clay and an underlying layer of grey clay. These layers and the road surface all had a pronounced camber to either side. The roadway continued into the courtyard beyond the end of the gate passage, though how far was not determined by these excavations. At a distance of about 18m to the north of the gate passage, the cutting of a service trench (Fig. 2; D) revealed a large ditch running on a west/east alignment.

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