Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Late eleventh/early twelfth century ringwork and bailey castle built on a steep spur of the North Downs, which commands the Maidstone-Sittingbourne road and the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury. It consisted of a bailey castle with gatehouse and curtain walls in flint and traces of an oval or polygonal shell keep. The bailey was divided into an inner and outer ward, the latter formed by a bank and ditch on the steep southern slopes of the hill. The site was in a ruinous state by the 16th century. The site was used for an air-raid observation post during the Second World War. Now in the ownership of Kent County Council.

Images

Monument Types

• GATEHOUSE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• KEEP (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• RINGWORK AND BAILEY (Abandoned, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (at some time))
• AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS OBSERVATION POST (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

[TQ 8079 5816] Thurnham Castle [NR] (Remains of) Urns and other remains found [NAT] (1)

Thurnham Castle crowns the point of a steep spur of the North Downs, which commands the Maidstone-Sittingbourne road and the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury. It is a motte and bailey castle with gatehouse and curtain walls in flint and traces of an oval or polygonal shell keep. The bailey was divided into an inner and outer ward, the latter formed by a bank and ditch on the steep southern slopes of the hill. (2)

Plan. (3)

Scheduled. (4)

Thurnham Castle is essentially as described by Authority 2 except that the so-called outer bailey is in fact part of the large chalk quarry which extends over the lower slopes of the hill below the castle. For particulars of detail, etc, see 1:2500 revision. (5)

Thurnham Castle motte and bailey, at 180 metres O.D., occupied the end of a short south-west spur on the crest of the South Downs, presenting extensive views over the Weald. A massive disused chalk quarry has encroached upon the southern perimeter of the motte, which is 70 metres across at the base and about 5 metres high. A much silted ditch is traceable around the north and west sides. The north-west part of the ditch extends for 147 metres, is 12 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep; the western part is 19 metres long, 0.3 metres deep, and reduced to 5 metres in width by slip from the mound. The top of the motte is 22 metres in diameter, of which 16 metres is a bowl shaped depression 1 metre to 2 metres deep with a further small hollow in the centre 1.5 metres deep; probably an excavation pit. At the edge of the top in the south-west quadrant there is a fragment of flint walling 2.5 metres long, 1.3 metres thick and 0.3 metres high. This may represent part of a shell keep. No other remains can be seen but the whole is densely overgrown. To the west of the motte a rectilinear ward of bailey, about 55 metres long (north to south) and 35 metres wide, had been constructed on a gentle south slope. At the north-east angle, near the edge of the motte ditch are the east and west walls of a gatehouse 10 metres long and 5.5 metres wide overall. Stripped of any facing stone the walling is of well mortared flint, up to 2.5 metres high and 0.9 metres thick.The east side is pierced by a subsidiary entrance gap with out-turned flanking foorings 1 metre long, but nothing to suggest that walling extended fully from gatehouse to keep. The the west of the gatehouse is the northern curtain wall, the best surviving structural remains at Thurnam Castle. It is 0.9 metres thick, 3.5 metres high and continues for 22 metres to the north-west corner of the bailey. From here only footings, mostly at ground level, form the west side fo the ward and saving one fragment the whole of the south side has been eroded by quarrying or subsequent slip. The remaining fragment is at the south-west angle a 6 metres length of flint masonry 0.4 metres above the ground level and a further 0.6 metres visible in the subsoil at the quarry edge. No traces of a ditch can be seen outside the north part of the bailey and on the west the footings follow the crest of a short but steep slope to a road that alters direction to confrom to the castle plan. There is no sign of an outer ward and it seem possible that Ditchfield (2) was misled by the shape of the chalk quarry. Although the castle has been much robbed of its masonry, footings might be exposed if the site were cleared of the humus and undergrowth which masks it. (6)

See also (7 and 8).

Work on the Conservation of the Walls (9).

Archaeological recording at Thurnham Castle, near Maidstone during March 2008. Advises that the illegal trench (on the top of the mound) exposing wall needs to be backfilled and that a sample of the accretion attached to wall be taken away for analysis. Once backfilled certain portions of the wall need to be repointed. (10)

Interpretation and Education Plan for Thurnham Castle and Iron Age Enclosure. (11)

Archaelogical evaluation outside the castle but within the scheduled grounds. Late post-medieval pottery (including one Border ware sherd and several local glazed brown wares of mid-C18th date), roof tile, bricks and slag. Interpreted as former ploughsoil from reworked natural. Slag may suggest post-medieval iron-working near the castle, or it may derive from attempts to 'sweeten' the heavy clay soils, a practice common from elsewhere. (12)

Standing masonry survey and topographic survey. (13)

The site was used as an air-raid observation post during the Second World War. (14)

From the National Heritage List for England:

Details

The monument includes a motte and bailey castle and is situated on a spur of the North Downs above the Pilgrim's Way historic routeway. The motte takes the form of a generally steeply-sided conical mound 70m in diameter at the base with a flattened top 22m across. In a ring around the top of the motte are traces of a shell keep, with one 2.5m section of flint walling more prominent on the south-west side. On the western and northern sides the motte drops some 5m to a ditch, now largely infilled by eroded soil from the mound, which provided additional defence for the keep on the mound. This ditch, most clearly visible for 150m to the NW of the motte, measures between 5m and 9m in width and now reaches no more than 1m in depth. On the eastern and southern sides the land slopes less steeply and the foot of the motte is less clearly defined. The bailey area to the west of the motte is defined by a thick flint wall, much of which has been reduced to footings by robbing of the stone but which survives to an impressive 3.5m in height along the northern edge. Integral to this northern curtain wall, and beside the edge of the motte ditch, are the remains of a gatehouse 10m long by 5.5m wide with blocked Norman-style archways. The overall size of the bailey, as defined by the curtain wall, is 55m N-S by 35m E-W. Beyond the curtain wall the land drops sharply to the road on the western side. To the south, a quarry of uncertain date has undermined the boundary wall. The quarry is likely to have had its origins in providing the flint nodules for the building of the castle but is excluded from the scheduling.

Reasons for Designation

Motte and bailey castles are medieval fortifications introduced into Britain by the Normans. They comprised a large conical mound of earth or rubble, the motte, surmounted by a palisade and a stone or timber tower. In a majority of examples an embanked enclosure containing additional buildings, the bailey, adjoined the motte. Motte castles and motte-and-bailey castles acted as garrison forts during offensive military operations, as strongholds, and, in many cases, as aristocratic residences and as centres of local or royal administration. Built in towns, villages and open countryside, motte and bailey castles generally occupied strategic positions dominating their immediate locality and, as a result, are the most visually impressive monuments of the early post-Conquest period surviving in the modern landscape. Over 600 motte castles or motte-and-bailey castles are recorded nationally, with examples known from most regions. As one of a restricted range of recognised early post-Conquest monuments, they are particularly important for the study of Norman Britain and the development of the feudal system. Although many were occupied for only a short period of time, motte castles continued to be built and occupied from the 11th to the 13th centuries, after which they were superseded by other types of castle.

Thurnham Castle survives well and exhibits a wide diversity of features such as the gatehouse and and stone built shell keep remains. It retains considerable potential for the recovery of evidence of the nature and duration of the use of the castle. (15)

Bartlett-Clark Consultancy, 2004, Thurnham Castle, Thurnham, Maidstone, Kent. Report on Archaeogeophysical Survey 2004 (Unpublished document). SKE13497.

Bartlett-Clark Consultancy, 2004, Thurnham Castle, Thurnham, Maidstone, Kent. Report on Archaeogeophysical Survey 2004 (Unpublished document). Ske13497.

<1> OS 25" 1939 (OS Card Reference). SKE48267.

<2> Memorials of Old Kent 1907 197-8 (ed PH Ditchfield) (OS Card Reference). SKE46884.

<3> VCH Kent 1 1908 423-4 plan (IC Could) (OS Card Reference). SKE50889.

<4> MOW List of Anc Mon Eng & Wales 1958 46 (OS Card Reference). SKE47354.

<5> F1 CFW 20-NOV-61 (OS Card Reference). SKE42673.

<6> F2 NVQ 16-Oct-86 (OS Card Reference). SKE43356.

<7> Field report for monument TQ 85 NW 4 - November, 1961 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4418.

<8> Field report for monument TQ 85 NW 4 - October, 1986 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4419.

<9> St. Blaise Limited, 2002, Conservation of Flint Remains Thurnham Castle Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE13269.

<10> Alan Ward, 2008, Archaeological recording at Thurnham Castle, near Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE13549.

<11> Clarity Interpretation, 2007, Thurnham Castle and Iron Age Enclosure, Interpretation and Education Plan (Unpublished document). SKE13563.

<12> Archaeology South-East, 2004, An Archaeological Evaluation at Thurnham Castle, Thurnham, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE13708.

<13> Oxford Archaeology, 2003, Archaeological Recording & Earthwork Survey, Thurnham Castle, Thurnham, Kent: Historic Building Survey (Unpublished document). SKE16530.

<14> 1942, Maidstone Sub-area plan to defeat invasion – amendment no 5 18/5/42,, National Archives (Bibliographic reference). SKE16661.

<15> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

Sources and further reading

Related records

Related thematic articles

• Kent's Castles (Thematic Essay)
• Medieval Kent (Thematic Essay)
• The Defence of Kent (Thematic Essay)