A great find by Kate of Lichfield Lore.
Here’s a great spot from Kate, of Lichfield Lore. Found on the always excellent Openlibrary.org, it’s a 1908 book called ‘The Victoria History of the County of Stafford’ and contains descriptions and plans of all the antiquities in Staffordshire. Including the one recently mentioned in discussions about The Fort, The Fault and Castle Street, in the same area.
Knaves Castle, in Newtown, Brownhills no longer exists, but it’s still the subject of much interest.
Kate said:
Hi Bob
I came across an interesting section in one of the old online versions of the Victoria History of the County of Stafford. It begins with a map of known earthworks in Staffordshire and then goes on to discuss some of them in more detail with lots of diagrams. I thought you might be interested because not only does it have snippets & diagrams about Knaves Castle & Castle Old Fort at Shenstone, it also has lots in the north of the County, an area I know you are familiar with.
Here’s the link http://archive.org/stream/victoriastafford00pageuoft#page/330/mode/2up You may have seen it before, but if not I hope it provides a bit of interest for a stormy bank holiday Monday!
Cheers,
Kate
This is the fascinating plan of Knaves Castle, mentioned in recent posts. It was lost under new housing sometime around the time of the Second World War.
The lane heading south, centre of image I think is Dawes Lane. Click for a larger version.
There is a text description, too:
Ogley Hay: Knaves Castle.- The remains of this work are situated on Watling Street at a level of 500 ft., but they are very slight and near to the line of a roadway leading south from the Watling Street.
The Road in question appears to be Dawes Lane. This is How the area looked on the 1948 SK00 map:
Extract from the 1948 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey sheet SK00 showing Knaves Castle and surrounding area. Click for a larger version.
The book covers a whole host of places, including Castlefort, it’s description of which is excellent.
My thanks to Kate for putting us on to such a wonderful book.
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Hi Bob
many thanks to Kate for this fascinating information. Providence Place has caught my eye. What was it, a farm, or railway worker’s house? Was there a Victorian house/shop by the Watling Street at the location of Knaves Castle before WW2?
regards
David
Thanks to Kate for the link to see this work online.
The Victoria County History of Staffordshire, which was started in 1899 and recognised as a remarkable mine of information, is much used by British History Online. But as we have seen with other publications it may not be definitive.
An example has come up concerning “Moseley’s Dole” mentioned in Margaret Brice’s Short History of Walsall Wood. Her information is as you would read in the County History.
However Clive mentioned this book available online…History and Directory of Walsall by Thomas Pearce, 1813…
http://archive.org/details/historydirectory00pear
This book predates the County History by some years and gives much more detailed examination to the origins, and these could be said to differ!
Nice one Kate. I have just downloaded the book, Magic.
Glad it’s of interest 🙂
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