Lydford Saxon burh and ringwork

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1002506) covers the earthworks of Lydford on a prominent ridge between the River Lyd and a tributary. The scheduling falls in three areas. Banks of the Saxon burh, which was called Hlidan and founded in the 880s, survive north, north-east and west of the present village. It had an Anglo-Saxon mint, was attacked by Danish raiders in 997 AD, and was one of the four biggest towns in Devon.

At Domesday, up to forty houses were destroyed when the ringwork was built in the south-west corner. The ringwork survives as a well defined semicircular rampart and ditch. It was replaced by the castle to the north: a standing square two-storey stone tower with a circular motte and a rectangular bailey added to the north-west, the bailey partly overlying the Saxon defences. Excavation found the footings of a timber bridge that once led from the bailey to the keep, replaced by a stone causeway in the 18th century.

The keep was built in at least three phases, in the 12th century, the late 13th century and the 17th to 18th centuries. It became the notorious Stannary Prison from the 13th to the 18th century and also a Civil War prison, when Sir Richard Grenville was Royalist governor. By the 1300s Lydford was declining because of its isolated position. Addyman's excavations in the 1960s confirmed that the present street layout reflects the Anglo-Saxon grid, and found Saxon drains and burghage boundaries under part of the castle bailey. Further remains of the burh survive but are not part of the scheduling.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1002506 (updated 5 November 2015).

• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1002506)
• Grid reference: SX 5096 8478 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)