Grimsby Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Grimesbi; Grymesby

In the civil parish of Grimsby.
In the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Modern Authority of North East Lincolnshire.
1974 county of Humberside.
Medieval County of Lincolnshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TA266091
Latitude 53.56366° Longitude -0.08975°

Grimsby Castle has been described as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Vanished, probably not completed. Commissioned 1200. Stocks of stone and lime sold in 1214. (King)

Most of the £80 allocated to build a castle here in 1200 was not spent, and in 1214 the stone and lime stocks were sold off. (Renn 1973)

Rad' de Bradel' dat domino Reg' xl. marc et j. palefrid' ut sit quietus de custodia operis castelli de Grymesby et ipse reddidit et quiet' clamavit domino Rex vj. bovata terre et vij acra prati et xvj. acra bosci, que saisite fuerint in manum domini Reg' eo quod hominies Grimesby juraver't quod illas in purprestura tenuit. Et remaneant ee ecclisie sue quas ipse similiter dicebatur habuisse in purprestura. Et praeceptum ; viconte quod praedictas vj. bovata terre et vij. acra prati et xvj. acra bosci saisiet in manum Reg' sicut dominicus suum et inde ad scaccarium respondeat. ( Rot. de Oblatis expanded by Philip Davis)

GRIMESBI Item R. r.c. de xxviij m. pro habenda ((totai) petra et calce quam R. habuit qpud Grimesbi de qua proposuit ibi castrum facere. In thes. lib. Et Q.E. (The Great Roll of the Pipe for the sixteenth year of the reign of King John: Michaelmas 1214)

Comments

Ralph Bradley gave the king 40 marks and a quality horse (palfrey) to be free from overseeing the work on the castle in 1200 shortly after it had been ordered. Given the loss of an overseer of works early in the building project and the sale of materials in 1214 it seems likely the work was never finished and probably was only just started. Indeed it may be that the six bovates of land, seven acres of meadow and sixteen acres of woodland, mentioned with Ralph's resignation, were intended to be a demense holding for the castle, with the castle built on part of that land and that disputes over the land holding prevented work from ever starting. There is some speculation as to a possible site for this castle but no certain site is know. The given map reference here is to the parish church of St James.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 922691.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Rod Collins (online discussion of variable value)
Books
- Osborne, Mike, 2010, Defending Lincolnshire: A Military History from Conquest to Cold War (The History Press) p. 45, 50
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 50
  Roffe, David, 1993, 'Castles' in Bennett, S. and Bennett, N. (eds), An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire (University of Hull Press) p. 40-1
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 265
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 196
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works, Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London) p. 56, 656-7
Periodical Articles
- Brown, R. Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' The English Historical Review Vol. 74 p. 249-280 (Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 90-121) view online copy (subscription required)
  Brown, R. Allen, 1955, 'Royal Castle-building in England 1154-1216' The English Historical Review Vol. 70 (Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press)) p. 19-64
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Stenton, D.M. (ed.), 1934, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the second year of the reign of King John, Michaelmas 1200 (Pipe Roll 46) (Pipe Roll Society Publications 50) p. 64
  Stenton, D.M. (ed.), 1936, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the third year of the reign of King John, Michaelmas 1201 (Pipe Roll 47) (Pipe Roll Society Publications 52) p. 18
  Hardy, D.H (ed), 1835, Rotuli de oblatis et finibus in Turri Londinensi asservati tempore Regis Johannis (London: PRO) p. 107 online copy
  The Great Roll of the Pipe for the sixteenth year of the reign of King John Michaelmas 1214 (Pipe Roll Society 73) p. 154
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 373 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
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