Excavations at South Mimms Castle, Hertfordshire

John Kent, Derek Renn and Anthony Streeten

London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Special Paper 16, 2013 

ISBN 978-0-903290-66-1 (out of print)

This is the final report of the archaeological and documentary investigation of a motte-and-bailey castle at South Mimms. Small-scale excavations of the 1960s by the late John Kent produced important results, not least in offering a fixed point for pottery and artefacts in the region north of London in the 12th century. A timber tower built at ground level was approached from a bridge through a cutting in the motte which partly covered the tower. The manor’s long ownership by the Mandeville family and their place in national history is explored, and the most likely builder of the castle proposed to be Geoffrey II de Mandeville, first Earl of Essex, between 1136 and 1143.