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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 →
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. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1003574.
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 Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1003574.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including The Harp Stone (7 km), Bowl barrow 200m south east of East Orchard (7.2 km), Iron Age settlement and associated field system on Smedmore Hill (7.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Part of the defences of the Anglo-Saxon fortified centre of Wareham and part of the motte and bailey castle with shell keep's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Part of the defences of the Anglo-Saxon fortified centre of Wareham and part of the motte and bailey castle with shell keep stands on Bracklesham Group And Barton Group (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Eocene. The rock here is sand, silt and clay.