Part of the defences of the Anglo-Saxon fortified centre of Wareham and part of the motte and bailey castle with shell keep

Scheduled area

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History & significance

Wareham town defences is a part of the Anglo-Saxon fortified centre of Wareham and part of the motte and bailey castle with shell keep situated in Dorset, England. The town defences date to the late ninth century, when Wareham was established as one of the burhs, or fortified settlements, created under the reign of Alfred the Great and his successors as part of a strategic defence network against Viking incursions. The surviving earthwork defences comprise substantial banks and ditches that originally enclosed the town on three sides, with the River Frome forming the fourth boundary. The motte and bailey castle with its distinctive shell keep was subsequently constructed within the burh, likely in the Norman period following the Conquest of 1066, representing a later phase of fortification that built upon the earlier Anglo-Saxon defensive infrastructure.

Part of the defences of the Anglo-Saxon fortified centre of Wareham and part of the motte and bailey castle with shell keep is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1003574. View the official record →

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