Wigmore in north-west Herefordshire was one of the major castles of the Middle Ages in the Welsh Marches, home to the great Mortimer family, a family that features heavily in medieval annals and today has its own society. Towards the end of the last century, concern was being expressed regarding the state of the ruins, and in 1995 English Heritage (EH) took it into Guardianship.
The problem then was what to do in terms of conservation of what amounts to a large castle. The decision to conserve ‘as found’ attracted much discussion in heritage circles and Glyn Coppack of EH wrote a number of papers concerning the project, although two are not included in this volume. The result was a consolidated monument, but still sitting among the fauna and flora of its environs. The excavations of 1996 and 1998 in the inner bailey were undertaken before conservation began; they were against the east tower and the south-west curtain wall, between the south and south-west towers. The areas were small, and the fact that in one place archaeological deposits were more than 8m deep meant that planning and photography were not an easy task.
Nevertheless, although the author modestly states that the results are what might be expected from any Marches castle excavation, they did confirm the longevity of the stronghold, and hint at the richness that might be expected should Wigmore be the subject of a major research project. Traces of the original earth and timber castle were uncovered, including a timber building that may have been the kitchen, producing a wealth of faunal remains (ninety-three figures illustrate this section).
Edmund Mortimer’s death of the plague in Ireland in 1425 has been thought to mark the end of Wigmore as a major residence, with Mortimer’s heir, Richard, Duke of York, having his headquarters at nearby Ludlow. However, some time in the fifteenth century the curtain wall was repaired and faunal remains and artefacts indicate occupancy of some status, even if Wigmore’s prime role at this date was more a hunting lodge than fortress.
The ten chapters include C Davidson Cragoe’s historical and architectural overview, and this chapter, along with Rátkai’s two on the overview of the excavated evidence and Wigmore in context, will be of most interest to castellologists. A number of unpublished reports have been used to inform the monograph, one of them being J Cooke’s ‘Wigmore Castle, Herefordshire: fabric survey’, prepared for English Heritage. This is described as forthcoming, but it is unclear whether it will be an in-house report or published more widely. I hope the latter, but it should be peer-reviewed in the light of a recent ‘project’ by the Castle Studies Group (CSG).
This project is Dr Robert Higham’s work on shell-keeps, the detailed introduction and gazetteer appearing on the CSG’s website in 2015, and kept up to date. Standing above the inner bailey at Wigmore is what has always been described as a shell-keep, against which stood the main tower, possibly on a motte. Higham dismisses Wigmore’s shell-keep, using his criteria, and the myth needs putting to rest. What we have with the ‘shell-keep’ at this castle is an upper or inner ward, the inmost part of the Mortimer castle. The inner ward would be best described as the lower bailey, with the accepted outer bailey beyond.
Rátkai’s report is a welcome addition to the field of castle studies, and the Society for Medieval Archaeology is to be congratulated on including it in its excellent monograph series.
