Dursley Castle was a 12th-century fortification in the village of the same name in Gloucesteshire. No traces remain of it today.
History
The castle was constructed by Roger de Berkeley, after Henry II stripped the family of their main castle in Berkeley itself. The exact location of the castle is uncertain, although it was probably adjacent to Castle Fields near the centre of Dursley. The castle’s form is also uncertain; 13th-century sources mention a stone tower, and 16th-century sources suggest the castle was surrounded by a moat.
The castle was ultimately abandoned and by the time the antiquarian John Leland visited Leland in the 1530s, it had been heavily quarried for its stone. The foundations could still be seen in 1779. Attempts were made to uncover the site through excavations in the 19th century, but were unsuccessful.
Bibliography
- Barkly, Henry. (1886-87) “Dursley, Notes on its Lords, the Castle, Church and Borough,” Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Volume 11, pp. 221-242 .
- Emery, Anthony. (2006) Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Southern England. Cambridge , UK : Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58132-5.
- Walker, D. (1991) “Gloucestershire Castles,” Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 109, pp. 5-23.
Attribution
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