Worcester siege castle, Diglis (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Digley

In the civil parish of Worcester.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Worcestershire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO85165391
Latitude 52.18324° Longitude -2.21845°

Worcester siege castle, Diglis has been described as a probable Siege Work.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Probable site of a siege work erected by King Stephen. Mound removed before 1852. (PastScape)

Siegework, one of two forts supposedly built by King Stephen during a siege of Worcester Castle.
According to Eaton, 'two mounds, one on Henwicke Hill and one on part of Red Hill near Diglis were raised by Stephen to besiege the castle, which was held by the Earl of Mellent (Meulant) but without success'.
Beardsmore quotes the following: 'but as the habit of the king was to start something strenuously and carry it out sluggishly, by the skill of the Earl of Leicester the king's siege forts were destroyed and the besieged skilfully rescued'.
Neither fort has been located. The geographic location here is based on the 1st edition OS mapping, identifying a site near Field Terrace as 'Site of Fort', though the source of this attribution is unknown. (Worcestershire and Worcester City HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 116182.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) WCM96635.

Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 508 (only records 2 siege castle)
  Anon, 1829, A Concise History and description of the City and Cathedral of Worcester (Worcester: T Eaton) p. 23 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Beardsmore, C., 1980, 'Documentary evidence for the history of Worcester's city defences' Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society (ser3) Vol. 7 p. 53-64

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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.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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