Worsley Castle Hill

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes the remains of a small earthwork castle situated on the summit of Castle Hill, a small outlier to the east of the Long Mynd. The position has been chosen for its strategic strength overlooking the main north-south routeway as it passes through the Church Stretton fault. The earthworks were designed to make maximum use of the natural defensive strength of the hill. The summit of the hill has been cut back around the west, north and east sides to form a steep scarp averaging 2.4m high with an outer berm or terrace 3m wide. Both ends of the scarp terminate on the precipitous hillslope which forms the south side of the enclosure. This artificial steepening of the hill has created a roughly subrectangular motte with a level platform, measuring 20m north to south by 22m east to west. The defences are strengthened around the west side by an outer rampart 1m high on its inner, uphill, side, merging with the natural slope to fall some 6m to a lower terrace 4m wide. This rampart runs for some 18m before fading out at both ends on the steepening natural hillslope. The lower terrace can be traced around the end of the hill for some 22m before fading in a similar fashion. A slight inturning in the scarp at its south east corner, along with a lowering of the inner scarp at this position, is believed to represent the position of an original entrance. To the immediate east of the earthworks is a flat area bounded around its east and north sides by a low bank 1m wide and 0.5m high. The bank, although superimposed on the adjoining earthworks, is included within the area of the scheduling. MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.