A Visit to a Motte and Bailey Castle

D and I were trying to think of somewhere to visit last Saturday and when I suggested Henley in Arden he mentioned there was a motte and bailey at nearby Beaudesert which we had never explored.

I managed to get a car parking space on Henley High Street so we left the car there and walked the few hundred yards to Beaudesert.


St John the Baptist in Henley with the strangely positioned town clock!

Beaudesert is separated from Henley by the River Alne.

St Nicholas, Beaudesert. This is a church that has been on my list to visit for ages and I did go inside later in the day but I will write about the church in a separate post.

Beaudesert is an older settlement than Henley and is a small village at the base of "The Mount" on which the de Montforts built a motte and bailey after the Norman Conquest. The Mount consists of 41 acres of Scheduled Ancient Monument which include the site of Beaudesert Castle and its fishponds together with a 100 acres of woodland and pasture. The motte and bailey castle was built on a natural ridge by Thurstan de Montford and the word Beaudesert means "beautiful wasteland" The castle was owned by the de Montforts from 1100 to 1500 but by the 1530's the castle was in ruins. The original castle, which may have been built on the site of an ancient British fort, would have been a wooden structure gradually replaced by stone and surrounded by a defensive curtain wall.

The earthworks that can still be seen today include a deep moat which surrounded the whole structure and separate ditches around the keep and inner bailey. None of the buildings remain except possibly for one stone which we failed to find. Explorations by a Channel 4 Time Team in 2001 revealed that the castle may not have had a stone keep as was once believed but they did find traces of a large hall and solar. The site is presently on the Historic England Heritage At Risk Register and a Steering Committee has been established and a management agreement made with Historic England to try and improve and protect the site.


We found the Heart of England Way which leads up onto The Mount. The first part of the ascent was somewhat steep and the main path (not visible in the photo) was very muddy and slippery so we walked up on the grass at the side of the path.

Looking back towards St Nicholas

First part of the climb was over!

Views towards Henley and the surrounding countryside.

Timothy was glad he was being carried and not getting his paws muddy!

The rest of the walk to the top was a gentle incline apart from a few steep muddy parts at the two ditches.

This photo taken from the Outer Bailey - the dividing ditch between the outer bailey and the inner bailey is marked by the bushes/hedge.

One of the defensive ditches between the inner bailey and keep.

Views from the top (the Keep)

The next photos show part of the ditch around the keep - as you can see you can continue the walk but to be honest there was that much mud which we had found really slippery we decided we had gone far enough. It would certainly be an interesting place to walk perhaps in the summer.

The Return Journey

We walked back towards Henley - these are the Jubilee Gardens

Time for lunch at the Nags Head where we had a good meal last year. This time we had cheese and pickle sandwiches and chips.

Christmas wreaths on Henley doors.

After lunch we walked to the Local Heritage Centre which has an excellent museum as we were keen to see the model of the motte and bailey there but sadly it is closed in the winter.

I'll write about St Nicholas in a separate post in a few days.



All photos taken by me with the Pansonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.

I've found D's camera card but there don't seem to be any photos of Beaudesert on it. He may have deleted them or more worryingly his camera card has been playing up recently and photos keep disappearing. I've told him to format it or buy a new one. Just hope it isn't a fault with the Canon!


Reference: Website www.henley-in-arden.org/castle