Motte and Bailey
Past, present and future inhabitants have been and always will be fascinated by the adjacent Norman Motte and Bailey, for which the council kindly provided a sign post opposite number 3 Blue Row in the 1990s! Generations of children born and brought up in Blue Row must have played on the banks, without much regard for the long history of the site. It was probably built in the 11th or 12th century - see Professor Martyn Jope's conclusions below. Nothing can be seen of the castle itself now, apart from the mound, but when it was built, it would have been a stone and earth base with a timber framed construction above.
From Professor Martin Jope, who excavated the site in the 1950s:
"Swerford Castle Hill is a small but extremely good example of a Motte and Bailey Castle such as we know to have been erected in England in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, as a result of Norman influence and conquest."
"Swerford Castle Hill is a small but extremely good example of a Motte and Bailey Castle such as we know to have been erected in England in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, as a result of Norman influence and conquest."
Further information, including further references to Professor Jope, is available on the Bluerow history website .
