WEDDINGTON CASTLE - An Online History
Other Halls and Castles Around Nuneaton - Sudeley Castle
This account of Sudeley Castle is taken from the essay: "Griff Manor House (Sudeley Castle), Warwickshire" by Stanley E. West, MA, AMA; in the "Journal of British Archaeological Association 31, 1968". Click the relevant links or scroll down for historical details and images of this building.
THE BUILDINGS
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
NOTE OF THE PLAN OF THE BUILDINGS
FINDS
THE POTTERY
BONES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
The site of the moated enclosure known as Sudeley Castle lies just south of Nuneaton and west of the A444 from Nuneaton to Coventry. In August 1966 the site was excavated prior to the development of the area for open coal mining and the construction of the proposed Nuneaton by-pass. The excavation was conducted by the writer [S. West] on behalf of the Ministry of Works and Public Buildings.
[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: since the writing of this essay, the East part of the moat was destroyed in 1974, when a dual carriageway was constructed over the site. At this time the West part of the site was under plough and the earthworks had been reduced to slight undulations. The West area was destroyed in Jan/Feb 1986 by open cast mining. A watching brief produced no new evidence for the date of the moat, or for internal features. Only a thin strip of the centre of the site now survives.]
The period of occupation of the site seems to have been confined to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with the construction of a small, but massive, stone house at the eastern end of the moated enclosure, with additional buildings of a much slighter nature to the north and west. Although close dating of the pottery recovered from the site is not possible and no coins or datable objects were recovered, it can be said that the ceramic evidence is compatible with the period of occupation of the site indicated by the documentary evidence. (back to top)
Sudeley Castle is situated at Griff, within the Municipal Boundary of Nuneaton, 300 yards north of Griff House (see Figure 1 in ILLUSTRATIONS section) the home of the celebrated nineteenth-century novelist, George Eliot (Nat. Grid. Ref. SP/357891; 6 in. O.S. Warks., SP/38 NE.). The site lies on gently sloping land draining to the north, on heavy boulder clay overlying middle coal outcrops immediately west of the site and is known to have been worked in the early eighteenth century; in fact small open pits were dug inside the moated enclosure itself as was shown by the excavation.
The word 'Castle' as applied to this site is a complete misnomer and appears to be of fairly recent usage. Certainly the site was connected with the de Sudeley family whose main seat was at Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, but in no respect could this manor-house be termed a 'Castle'. The surrounding moat is in itself not formidable and would have presented little obstacle to determined intruders. At least until the fourteenth century it was known as the 'Manor of Griff' in the records and the present name has simply arisen because of connections with the seat. (back to top)
The moated enclosure occupies the southern end of a four and a half acre field and the outer edges of the south, east, and west sides of the moat are in fact the modern hedge lines.
This section is currently under construction.
