Hi All,
Well, things are progressing at Olivers Mound, and the geophysics results are more or less back in with some positive results. There's going to be a launch meeting on 10th December at 7pm where Archaeological Investigations will show the results of their geophysics survey and we will start to arrange Phase 2 - the archaeological excavations - which will take place in May 2008.
For those of you who don't know, Olivers Mound is the name of the former 'Courts Hills' or 13th/14th century castle in the village of Shrawley, Worcestershire, for which the local history society (all of 11 members) have secured HLF funding (just short of £45k) to undertake a programme of investigtaions, excavation, community projects and publications on the site. Little to see now, the castle was strategically placed to control an ancient ford over the River Severn deep in Shrawley Woods. I won't be giving the exact position of the site for obvious reasons!
Excavations by a husband and wife team, the Masterman's in 1929 found one of the possible corner towers and evidence for a possible keep, or sqaure tower. All that is left of the castle now is a few stones on the ground and the troughs and spoil heaps of Masterman's excavations. However, preliminary surface finds have identified 13th and 14th century pottery, and we hope to find much more. Much of the stonework of the castle was robbed to make new buildings when the village of Shrawley expanded, but it would be great to find at least some of the foundation stones and evidence of a curtain wall.
The dig itself will be professionally run by AOC Archaeology, but will have a large number of volunteers and school parties - a tent, loos, a lock-up. I'm also thinking of getting a barbecue in - nothing like a hotdog after some hard trowelling.
Had a look at a couple of other examples of 13th/14th century sites in the region, one of these being the (privately owned - jealous much?) Holt Castle and the impressive Stokesay Castle just north of Ludlow. Olivers mound is on a much smaller scale, but could have once been similar in design.
Holt Castle (not be to be confused with the one nr Wrexham in Wales)
The Main tower at Stokesay Castle 
The later-added timber-framed gatehouse at Stokesay
So why is it caled Olivers Mound when it is the site of a 13th century castle? Well, it might be to do with the fact that Royalist sympathisers used the castle as a defensive gun position against parliamentary forces. There's more stories about vagabonsds and cutthroats in the woods, but I'm going to make sure I've got my facts straight before retelling that story! Would be a good one for the shcool visits, especially if there's a few reinactment peolpe involved.
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2007-11-08 @ 19:29