Rotherfield Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Rotherfield.
In the historic county of Sussex.
Modern Authority of East Sussex.
1974 county of East Sussex.
Medieval County of Sussex (Rape of Pevensey).

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ553281
Latitude 51.03034° Longitude 0.21235°

Rotherfield Castle Hill has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Guy gives no source or evidence. His supposition as castle appears to be based on place name evidence alone. While the location is not implausible for medieval castle Guy's unquestioning certainty is enough to consider this site doubtful. There is recorded a large Roman bloomery (Iron working site) in the area which might suggest the castle place-names in the area (of which there several) derive from a Roman, rather than medieval, site. However, the area was a Saxo-Norman deer park of the C11-C12 so a lost early hunting lodge is an alternative possibility.
Pullein (p. 44) appears to be suggesting that L.F Salzman though the hill might be land in the demense of Robert, Count of Mortain in the late C11 and afterward in royal demense but elsewhere (p. 151), she suggests it as the site of a timber fortress. If this was a small part of demense land in the parish then perhaps the name is a reference to Pevensey Castle, the centre of the Rape (i.e. The hill owned by the castle rather than the hill on which a castle exists).
Whatever the origin of the Castle Hill name there is no archaeological evidence of a castle of any form here.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Guy, John, 1984, Castles in Sussex (Phillimore) p. 136
  Pullein, C., 1928, Rotherfield: The story of some Wealden manors (Tunbridge Wells) p. 44, 151, 167 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
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