Conservation Management Plan - Tamworth Borough Council

An alternative theory is postulated by David Palliser who noted that the northern, Staffordshire half has a more
irregular street plan and has the only Danish street names Ellergate and Gumpegate. He suggested that the original
town lay to the north bounded by the triangle of streets surrounding
St Editha’s (Palliser 1975:144, fig 12) and was taken and settled by the Danes. He suggests that Aethelflaed laid out
the southern ,Warwickshire, half with a more regular street pattern when she doubled the area of the town by
digging the defences which cover an area of 22 ha. Sadly the lack of archaeological evidence makes it impossible to
be certain either way. The ditch postulated as the outer bailey ditch of the castle may throw light on the layout of
the town, if any other opportunities arise to excavate its primary deposits.
Mint
There was a mint at Tamworth from at least the reign of Athelstan (924-939). This is important in showing the status
of the settlement at this time, for Athelstan had forbidden the minting of coins, except in a port or Market Town.
There are a few coins from the early years of Edward the Confessor (1042-1056) suggesting that there was only a
single moneyer working in the town at this time. More are known from later in the reign of Edward the Confessor
(1056-1066) and there are known to have been at least two moneyers working in the town at this time (Danson EW
1969-70 ‘the Anglo – Saxon and Norman mint of Tamworth’ Trans South Staffs Arch Soc 11: 32-57). Most of the known
coins from the Tamworth mint are in Scandinavia, indicating that they were probably paid as Danegeld, a tax or
tribute to pay off the Vikings to stop them ravaging the land.
St Ruffins Well (Fig 1; Plate 47)
St Ruffins well was at the east end of the castle bailey. It is known to have been in existence by 1276, according to
a thirteenth century hundred roll of Edward Ist cited by Allsopp which refers to someone blocking the route to
St Ruffin’s well Rotuli Hundredorum, 4 Ed I, 1276, ‘Will’s Chelle obstruxit viam q’ducit ad fontem S’ci Ruffany ‘ (Allsopp
1959). It may possibly date back to the early medieval period. Ruffin is said to have been one of the two sons of
Wulfhere, a pagan king of Mercia, and to have been converted to Christianity by St Chad along with his brother
Wuifade. As a consequence they were slain by their father. He later repented and tradition has it that he dedicated
the well here as a holy well in atonement. If true, this would imply a link with Mercian nobility in the mid 8th century
(pre-Offa and contemporary with the recently discovered hoard) but these legends are often later attributions. The
story of Ruffin would appear to have originated from the Isle of Wight, when it reached Staffordshire is unknown.
The 1741 plan of the 2nd Marquis of Townshend’s landholdings (Fig 13) shows a cold bath belonging to Mr Wills. This
was in the vicinity of what is now known as ‘St Ruffins Well’. It was presumably sited on a natural spring issuing from
the foot of the river terrace at this point. In the same way that it was fashionable for some 18 th century property
owners like Townshend to refurbish their homes in antiquarian style, they also liked to ascribe romantic and
antiquarian origins to features of their parks and gardens and this may be the case with Mr Wills’ cold bath.
Aethelflaed’s fortification and location of Offa’s palace
Local antiquarian tradition has it that Aethelflaed built the original motte, (Erdeswick writing between 1553 and
1603 wrote: ‘she here erected a tower, on a round artificial mount, called the Dungeon, which we now behold, and
which forms the site of the present castle’ (Erdeswick facsimile 1844: 437) Dugdale appears to have drawn heavily on
Erdeswick when he wrote in 1656 that Aethelflaed restored the town: ‘to its antient strength and splendour, raysing
a strong tower upon an artificial mount of earth, called the dungeon, for defence against any violent assault thereof:
upon which mount that building now called the castle hath of later times been erected; for the body of the old castle stood
below towards the Mercate Place’ (Dugdale 1656:) The contention was repeated again by Henry Norris in his History of
Tamworth Castle (Norris 1899: 13-14).
This explains why the statue commemorating Aethelflaed’s refortification of Tamworth was sited at the foot of the
motte, rather than on the line of the ‘King’s ditch’ (Plate 34). This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the historical
reference to a Saxon fortification. At this time ‘Burh’ meant a fortified settlement, or fortified residence (Williams
A 1992) rather than a castle, and her fortification is the ditch and rampart enclosing the settlement at Tamworth.
However these myths are tenacious and the recent Town Centre Conservation Area Designation still persists with
this fundamental misunderstanding (Tamworth Borough Council 2005:5) as does a recently produced leaflet on
Saxon Tamworth (Tamworth Borough Council 2010), quite apart from coverage in the local history columns of the
local papers.
Tamworth Castle Conservation Management Plan www.marionblockley.co.uk
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