Archaeological projects in Wigmore have tended to be concentrated on the castle. 

Wigmore itself was the subject of an archaeological assessment as part of the Central Marches Historic Towns Survey (Dalwood, 1996).  At that time three archaeological excavations had taken place in the village.

One of these found a floor, traces of walls and a fireplace below an existing house, the Old Post Office during restoration work.  These were not dated, but were pre 1600. Excavation beneath 17th century Greenhill Cottage in Castle Street by J W Tonkin revealed foundations of an earlier two-roomed house built at right angles to the street.

Salvage recording at Castle Street during bulldozing in 1970 revealed foundations of the timber framed vicarage, pulled down about 100 years previously.  These consisted of stone footings about 18ins high and wide.  This building was 45ft by 30ft and divided into two rooms by a footing.

Other work in Wigmore has included salvage recording at the Old Vicarage Residential Home, Ford Street, which recovered three sherds of medieval pottery (13^th to 14^th century), and late 19^th century pottery and building materials.

Again, medieval material was recovered during archaeological monitoring of ground-works for new building adjacent to Oakley House in 2000, where a building from not later than the early 16^th century was also found (Appleton-Fox, 2000).

Castle Cottage lies within a part of Wigmore identified as distinct urban component in the form of a block of tenement or ‘burgage’ plots on the south side of Castle Street. This, together with other medieval urban components, formed the entity which has been classified (its ‘medieval urban form’) as a small medieval market town (Dalwood, 1996).

Standing buildings in Wigmore have also been examined.  One house in the village may have medieval origins although rebuilt in the 17^th century (RCHM, 1934, p210 no. 11). More recently, outbuildings at Court House were examined by Richard Stone (2002).

The house itself is a Grade II listed building (DOE 1987).

Castle Cottage is a grade II listed timber-framed building that lies on an east west axis on the south side of Castle Street, Wigmore and is of boxed frame construction three panels high set on a shallow brick plinth.  The east and west gable frames are four panels wide.  The north façade fronts directly on to a main road.  It is of single storey with attic and has a cellar entrance at the south elevation, which is at the rear of the house.

Today it is one long building but the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments describes the building as a former cobbler’s shop and two dwellings and when visited in the first quarter of the 20^th Century it was described as being in a poor condition.

The external timbers have been heavily painted and many details of the original construction (such as the position of peg holes) are obscured.  Many of the original timbers have been replaced with re-used or modern ones

The gabled roof is covered in slate and towards the western end the slates have been replaced with modern ones.  The south pitch of the roof has been raised to a two-storey height.

Detail of the front (north) porch

External Elevation North

The northern façade has had recent repair that includes a new sill beam situated east of the central doorway and replacement windows at the ground floor level.  The sill beam west of the doorway has also been replaced.  The porch on this elevation is of a modern design and also the dormer window above.

A door set in the eastern corner has been made redundant; although a new door has been inserted it has been blocked internally.  However peg holes on the corner post reveal that an original mid rail went across the door and therefore this doorway was not part of the original plan when the building was built.

A centrally located post on this elevation (see hatched timber shown on figure 1) has the remains of a raised moulding on the external face.  There are no other moulded timbers on the external faces of the building and therefore this timber is probably inserted.

East and West Elevations

Both of these frames have had repair work done to them over a period of time but still retain their original form.

The eastern gable elevation has had the brick plinth replaced and has been re-pointed during recent works.

It was noted that on the east face of the north post to this gable frame, that there were a series of four cuts with corresponding cuts on the next stud going south.  This probably indicates that there was some form of structure running off in an eastern direction. 

The west gable frame has had modern repairs or replacement of selective timbers and the in-fill of the panels have been re-plastered and painted over recently.

South

A new extension situated at the south east corner of the building has been built.  This extension overshoots an earlier extension that has now been demolished.  Much of the timber framing on the south elevation has either been replaced or the timbers are re-used. Plate 4 shows the exposed timbers at the south east part of the building.

The cobbled floor within the cobbler's shop.

Conclusion

Much of the timbers to this house are re-used as disused peg holes appear both internally and externally on timbers in random places that do not make sense.  Internal partition walls as well as ceiling beams do not relate to any constructional form in the way this building was built originally.  On the other hand this building may have been built using re-used timbers.

The only frames that relate to a certain style of build are the east and west elevations and possibly dates to the 17^th Century.

The Stratigraphy

A shallow trench was excavated by the contractor, under archaeological supervision, along the line of the northern elevation to the immediate west of the main front entrance.  This trench was 400 millimetres deep and 500 millimetres wide by 3.2 metres long and was excavated to allow the insertion of the new sole plate (the base of the trench was at 142.57 OD).  The fill of this trench was a very loose, dark humic soil with frequent inclusions of small stones, brick, decayed wood and mortar.  A number of nineteenth and twentieth century glass bottles were recovered from the trench, which have been retained.  No archaeological features or deposits were recorded during the excavation of this trench.

Reporting

Unpublished report - Castle Cottage, Wigmore, Herefordshire: archaeological building recording and monitoring by Huw Sherlock, P J Pikes and Robert Williams, 2002

This report is available at the Archaeological Data Service site

To view or download the report click here

A copy of this report is held in the reference section of Hereford City Library

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