The Dig
Within our collection, we have some great photos from the archaeological digs that took place on the site of what is now The Shires Shopping Centre. The aim of these digs was to unearth the remains of Trowbridge Castle. It is likely the castle was built by Humphrey I de Bohun during the 1100s, prior to his death around 1123. The first records of Trowbridge Castle date to 1139, when it was besieged.
This series of digs successfully mapped its footprint and uncovered a surprisingly rich history pre-dating the castle itself. The most significant investigations were conducted by Wessex Archaeology between 1977 and 1988.
Pre-castle Trowbridge
The excavations revealed that the castle wasn’t built on empty land. Beneath the medieval layers, archaeologists found the foundations of a Saxon settlement. There was evidence of a 7th–11th century settlement, including timber buildings and a “sunken-featured building.” This settlement predated the town’s current name and would have been known as Straburg. In the 1086 Domesday Book, the village of Straburg was recorded as having 24 households, ‘well-endowed with land, particularly arable ploughlands, and rendering 8 pounds sterling to its feudal lord a year.’ Its former Anglo-Saxon lord, Brictric, was the largest landowner in Wiltshire at the time.
Warhorse
A major discovery made during the 1986–88 phase of the dig was a late 11th-century stone church and a cemetery containing at least 160 burials. This church was later “secularised” as the castle expanded. Another find of significant importance was that of a warhorse. Recent analysis of bones found in the 1980s identified a horse standing at 15.2 hands—exceptionally large for the Norman period. This suggests the castle may have housed high-status warhorses, possibly traded from the Near East or Spain. (Click here for our blog post on the research visit). The Warhorse Project has now published a book on their findings. It is worth visiting the Project website to learn more.
The castle dig also confirmed that Trowbridge was a classic motte-and-bailey castle. The line of the massive castle ditch was found to follow the curve of modern Fore Street. Excavations in 1977 near Court Street identified a thick layer of redeposited clay, interpreted as the remains of the motte. In 1986, a fragment of a stone wall was uncovered, believed to be part of the outer curtain wall that protected the bailey.
