A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire by HR Hannaford

A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire by H R Hannaford Archaeology Service Archaeology Service Report Number 162 © Shropshire County Council June 1999 A WATCHING BRIEF AT WHITTINGTON, SHROPSHIRE by H R HANNAFORD A Report for MONTAGE CONSTRUCTION LTD Archaeology Service Winston Churchill Building, Radbrook Centre, Radbrook Road,Shrewsbury, SY3 9BJ Tel: (01743) 254018 Fax: (01743) 254047 TELFORD & WREKIN COUNCIL A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 HISTORY OF THE SITE 3 3 THE WATCHING BRIEF 5 4 DISCUSSION 6 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 7 ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Location of the study area; 1:5000 scale Fig. 2: Location of pits A - F; 1:200 scale Fig. 3: Sections through pits A - F; 1:20 scale 1 A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire 1 INTRODUCTION In May 1999 work began on the construction of a new porch and pergola at the White Lion Public House, Castle Street, Whittington, Shropshire. The White Lion lies on the B5009 Queen's Head to Gobowen road, now a minor road but formerly part of the main London to Holyhead road and former A5 Trunk Road (Fig. 1). The pub is also situated on the line of the former defences of Whittington Castle, originally a motte and bailey castle built in the late 11th or early 12th centuries, and rebuilt in stone in the 13th century. It was considered possible that significant archaeological remains associated with the medieval castle might survive on the site. The remains of the castle and its surrounding defensive earthworks are a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Shropshire County No. 17 - Whittington Castle). Because of the potential archaeological significance of the site, it was made a condition of planning consent that the construction work should be subject to a programme of archaeological monitoring and recording. The Archaeology Service, Shropshire County Council, was commissioned to carry out the archaeological monitoring and recording on behalf of Montage Construction Ltd. This report details the results of this work. 2 A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire 2 HISTORY OF THE SITE In the mid 19th century a (?local) tradition was recorded that the castle at Whittington had been built in 843 by a British nobleman, whose son, Tudor Trevor, made it his chief residence. However, the name Whittington is thought derive from the Old English and to mean "estate associated with Hwita", and the place is first mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, when it lay within Merset Hundred. At the end of the Saxon period, Whittington was a large royal manor with 8½ outliers, held by King Edward the Confessor. These outliers probably included Welsh Frankton, Berghill, Daywell, Fernhill, Hindford, Henlle, Ebnall, and half of Old Marton. In the first half of the 11th century, during the reign of King Aethelred the Unready, Whittington, together with two other royal manors, the neighbouring manor of Maesbury and Chirbury in the southwest of the county, paid "half a night's revenue" to the crown (originally a night's revenue was equivalent to the amount of food required to support the King and his household for one night). But by 1066, the manor, like many others in Merset Hundred, was waste, probably as a result of raiding by the Welsh under Gruffydd ap Llewelyn, ruler of Gwynedd and Powys. (Bagshaw, 1851; Gelling, 1990, 312; Thorn and Thorn, 1986, 4,1,12 and notes; Eyton, 1860, 29-42) After the Norman conquest, the manor, like other former royal manors in the county, was held by Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury. In 1086 the manor together with its outliers, consisted of 18 taxable hides with enough land for 25 ploughs. There were 6 ploughs in lordship, and 15 villagers and 6 smallholders had a further 12 ploughs between them; there were also 12 ploughmen, and a number of Welshmen, who paid 20s, living in the manor. The manor had a mill, valued at 5s, and a league of woodland. By 1086, the manor had recovered and was paying £15 15s in tax. (Thorn and Thorn, 1986, 4,1,12 and notes) In 1086 the manor was held directly by Earl Roger; the County SMR entry for the castle (SA1003) cites "Tudyr ap Rhys" as his subtenant for the manor, although this is not stated in the Domesday Survey, which records as a separate entry from Whittington that Tudur, a Welshman, held a district in Wales from the Earl. Tudur was probably Tudur ap Rhys Sais, and his holding was probably Nanheudwyin in the vale of Llangollen. (Thorn and Thorn, 1986, 4,1,13 and notes) After the rebellion of Earl Roger's son and heir, Robert de Bellême, in 1101, the manor of Whittington, together with his other estates, was forfeited to the Crown, and was given by Henry I to William Peverel of Dover. His nephew, William is credited with building the first castle at Whittington in 1138 (although he may simply have strengthened an existing structure). William in turn forfeited the estate in 1153 for his part in the poisoning of Ranulf, Earl of Chester and Henry II granted it briefly to Geoffrey de Vere in 1164, and then to Roger de Powis in 1165. The manor was acquired in 1204 by Fulk Fitz Warine, who claimed descent from the Peverels. He received a Licence to Crenellate the castle in 1221, but in 1223 it was captured and held briefly by Llewelyn the Great. For the next two centuries the manor was held by the Fitz Warines as a Marcher Lordship or Welshry, that had to be rejoined to the county, with other Welshries, in 1536. The castle was again besieged, this time unsuccessfully, by the Welsh in 1405. (Thorn and Thorn, 1986, 4,1,13 and notes; Jackson, 1988) 3 A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire In 1420 the last Fulk Fitz Warin died without issue, and the castle and manor passed through his sister to Richard Haukford and thence to William Bouchier, whose descendent, John, Earl of Bath, exchanged the manor with Henry VIII. At this time the castle was described by Leland, the king's antiquarian, as "a ditched round castle not very large in the middle of the village". Edward VI granted the castle to Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, but he forfeited it for high treason, and Mary I subsequently granted it to Fitz Alan, the last Earl of Arundel. He mortgaged the castle to several persons, one of whom, William Albany, took sole possession of it in default of payment. (Leighton, 1901, 22; Jackson, 1988, 63-5; Bagshaw, 1851) The castle then passed by marriage to the Lloyd family of Aston. In 1760 the castle still had a keep on a mound 30ft high, and four towers, although the southeast tower collapsed in this year after a heavy frost, and in c.1778 the grounds were laid out as a fancy garden. In the 19th century parts of the castle were demolished, including a circular building in the southwest angle, and the western towers and part of the curtain wall. Excavations in the inner bailey in 1973 located the remains of a rectangular keep and other buildings, destroyed by fire possibly in the late 12th or early 13th centuries. The site is currently leased by Whittington Parish Council and is open to visitors. (Pevsner, 1958, 317; Jackson, 1988, 63-5) 4 A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire 3 THE WATCHING BRIEF A total of six pits c. 600mm by 600mm square by 700mm deep were excavated by hand by the building contractors to take the concrete bases for the new pergola and porch (Fig. 2; A - F). At the bottom of three of the pits (A, B, C & D) at the southeast corner of the study area, a layer of dark grey silt was seen (Fig. 3; 12, 13, 24, & 36). This deposit may have represented the uppermost fill of one of the bailey ditches. In pits A and B, this deposit was sealed by a layer of brown clay flecked with organic stains and iron-pan (10 &11). To the east, in pits D and E, this deposit was replaced by a layer of grey to greyish brown silty clay with pebbles (22, 27, & 28). In pits A - D a brick and cobble yard surface (6, 8, & 21) lay at a depth of c. 300mm below the existing ground surface. In pits A and C the top 100mm of this surface had been re-laid with concrete (5). The existing patio (1-4, 7, 14-15, 18-19) and yard (29 & 30) had been laid over this earlier surface. In pit E there was no sign of the earlier yard surface, but instead there were deposits of very dark grey humic yard soils (25 & 26). These yard soils were also present in pit F (31 & 32), but here they sealed a deposit of loose, black sooty soil (33) containing fragments of 18th-century pottery and clay tobacco pipe, probably the contents of a domestic rubbish pit. 5 A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire 4 DISCUSSION The top of the fills of one of the defensive ditches around the outer bailey of the castle may have been exposed at the base of the pits dug for the foundations of the new pergola around the southwest corner of the public house. No other significant archaeological deposits or features were disturbed or damaged during the excavation of these pits, which otherwise encountered made ground and yards of 18th-century and later date. 6 A Watching Brief at Whittington, Shropshire 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED Bagshaw, S, 1851: History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire, Sheffield Eyton, Rev.

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