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Vardre South, Settlement Earthworks South of Deganwy Castle: Medieval Borough

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NPRN400533
Map ReferenceSH77NE
Grid ReferenceSH7835079310
Unitary (Local) AuthorityConwy
Old CountyCaernarfonshire
CommunityConwy
Type Of SiteEARTHWORK
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
Settlement earthworks that can be associated with the thirteenth century borough or else with a medieval bond settlement or maerdref[VARDRE]. A similar earthwork complex lies north of the castle (see NPRN 400535).
The borough was founded with the castle in the mid thirteenth century. House plots or burgages, were to be assigned in 1248 & 1251, and a charter was issued in 1252. Each burgess or householder, was to have half an acre for a building plot in the borough and two acres of arable land outside. Something of the borough appears to have survived the destruction of the castle in 1263 to be attached to the new borough of Conway, chartered in 1284 (see NPRN 33013). Weekly markets and annual fairs continued to be held and nineteen houses are listed in the 1305-6 Conway rental.
This is a complex of earthwork features covering an area about 200m across on open land south of Degannwy Castle (NPRN 95282). These mostly appear to be field boundary features. A north-south trackway crosses the area, continuing the line of a holloway leading from the castle entrance. This appears to be flanked by building sites and could be the borough street.

Source: Beresford 'New Towns of the Middle Ages' revised edition (1988), 42-3, 546-7

Aerial coverage RCAHMW AP94-CS 0849-50: AP945115/52-5; 945116/56]

John Wiles 18.03.08