Clavering Castle remains are situated in the small parish village of Clavering

Clavering, Essex

Clavering is a village and also a parish in north-west Essex in England. The name 'Clavering' means 'place where clover grows'.-Location and local area:...

 in the County of Essex, 50m north of the church of St Mary and St Clement on the southern bank of the River Stort

River Stort

River Stort is a tributary of the River Lea which it joins at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire at Feildes Weir-Overview:River Stort takes its name from Bishop's Stortford, a town through which it flows. It was given the name in the 16th century....

, some 10 km south-west of Bishop's Stortford

Bishop's Stortford

Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated just west of the M11 motorway, on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport and part of the...

 .

Pre-Conquest

The site of this castle is unusual in that the ringworks and earthworks that remain have been identified as predating the Norman conquest.

Ringworks are medieval fortifications built and occupied from late Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 times to the later 12th century. A ringwork was a small defended area which contained buildings surrounded or partially surrounded by a large ditch and a bank topped with a timber palisade or, more unusually, a stone wall. Occasionally a more lightly defended embanked enclosure, the bailey, adjoined the ringwork. Ringworks acted as strongholds for military operations and defended aristocratic or major settlements. They are rare, and there are only 200 recorded examples, fewer than 60 have baileys. Clavering Castle is one of a limited number and very restricted range of Anglo-Saxon and Norman fortifications and the ringworks are of particular significance for investigating the period.

A series of earth banks, channels and pond bays have not been dated but are believed to be associated with a former mill. These earthworks extend for 200m to the west of the castle along the banks of the River Stort.

The River Stort flows around the north side of the site and has been diverted to feed the moat. Archaeological excavations have established that there was a pre-Conquest settlement and the later Norman castle.

Lords of Clavering

The first known Lord of Clavering mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

was Robert Fitz Wymarc (an image of who appears on the Bayeux Tapestry

Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings...

. ‘Robert’s Castle’ mentioned in Doomsday is thought to refer to Clavering Castle. Wymarc was a Frenchman and was one of Edward the Confessor's

Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....

 closest aides. The site is identified as one of the castles to which the French party at Edward the Confessor's court fled to in 1052.

Stone Coffin

A stone coffin was found in 1923 and is believed to have contained the remains of a Clavering Lord:

A coffin of stone, weighing about a ton, and containing the well-preserved skeleton of a man, has been discovered at Clavering. Workmen engaged in erecting a fence around the churchyard at a depth of two feet, came upon the solid slab of stone which formed the lid of the coffin. When unearthed it was found to be seven feet in length and two feet wide. The lid, walls and base of the coffin were six inches thick and were cut out of solid sandstone. The skull was that of an intellectual head, and the teeth were perfect. The discovery was made on the edge of a moat which formerly surrounded Clavering Castle, and probably on the site of an ancient chapel attached to the castle. The castle has long since disappeared and only the mound now remains. It was evident the coffin had been disturbed at some previous date, as one end of the lid was broken… the coffin was reinterred.

Dates

• Castle (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Moat (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Bridge (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Building (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Earthwork (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Dam (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Pond (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)
• Watermill (Dated 1066AD to 1539AD)

Archaeologists have inspected the site and together with aerial photographs have dated the site as possibly 410AD to 1065AD early Medieval with evidence of an Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 British fort on a defensive site later built on by the Saxons

Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...

 and then Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

.

Further reading

• History Walks in Clavering: a journey in time through an Essex village by Jacqueline Cooper & Jamie Oliver
  Jamie Oliver
  James "Jamie" Trevor Oliver, MBE , sometimes known as The Naked Chef, is an English chef, restaurateur and media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his campaign against the use of processed foods in national schools...
  
  (2003) ISBN 1873669119.
• Clavering & Langley the first Thousand Years by E.M. Ludgate (1996) ISBN 095101711X.
• Clavering & Langley: 1783-1983 by E.M. Ludgate (1984) ISBN 0951017101.

External links

• Clavering Castle