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Caerwent Motte

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castell Gwent

In the community of Caerwent.
In the historic county of Monmouthshire.
Modern authority of Monmouthshire.
Preserved county of Gwent.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST47079031
Latitude 51.60913° Longitude -2.76573°

Caerwent Motte has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

The motte at Caerwent is a subcircular, originally ditched mound, about 24m in diameter, raised over the south-eastern angle of the defences of the Roman town (Nprn93753). A 'castell of Gwent' is mentioned in about 1150. (Coflein)

The interpretation of the site, based on actual remains and location is that the small motte represents a watch-tower or guard-post. Caerwent does not present any outworks that would be expected for a castle in hostile territory and its size does not suggest intensive use at anytime. Based on the possibility that it guarded the quarry source for Chepstow, the motte may be early. (Phillips)

Although the motte lacks outworks the large Roman town walls were and are intact and survive virtually to full height. This would make an ideal camp for a large cavalry force but would be far to large for a castle with a limited garrison.
Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
Coflein   County HER        
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Sources of information, references and further reading

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
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.
Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get.

This record last updated on Wednesday, May 1, 2013
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