Rhayader Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Rhayader Town Defences

In the community of Rhayader.
In the historic county of Radnorshire.
Modern authority of Powys.
Preserved county of Powys.

OS Map Grid Reference: SN970680
Latitude 52.30108° Longitude -3.51320°

Rhayader Town Defences has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Scant traces of medieval earth embankments survive. These may just be boundary ditches rather than defences. Soulsby writes 'Rhayader appears to have been a defended town and the line of a ditch can still be traced following the outer limits of the property boundaries.' He references Williams, J., History of Radnorshire, 285 but there seems to be nothing of this at that reference and Williams does not mention any defences in the relevant part of his book (pp. 247-260)

Town defences inferred from documents. Prob planted borough of circa 1360-1. Presumed earthwork defences unlocated OS 1980. Prob now destroyed. suggested Roman origin (Spurgeon, C J, 1978). (Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust HER)

Links to mapping and other online resources

Data >

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County HER

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Sources of information, references and further reading

The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 309594.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 3558.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 273
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds), Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 view online copy
  Soulsby, Ian, 1983, The Towns of Medieval Wales (Phillimore; Chichester) p. 224-6 (plan of town only)
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 218
  Beresford, M.G., 1967, New Towns of the Middle Ages (Lutterworth Press, London) p. 573
  Williams, J., 1859, The History of Radnorshire (Tenby) ('Reprinted from Archaeologia Cambrensis ') view online copy
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J., 1978, 'Rhayader' Archaeology in Wales Vol. 18 p. 59
  Williams, S.W., 1898, 'Rhayader and its antiquities' Montgomeryshire Collections Vol. 30 p. 211-35 view online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Silvester, R.J., 1994, Radnorshire Historic Settlements (CPAT report)

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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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This record last updated on Wednesday, May 1, 2013

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