Cuckney Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cukeney

In the civil parish of Cuckney.
In the historic county of Nottinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Nottinghamshire.
1974 county of Nottinghamshire.
Medieval County of Nottinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK56657142
Latitude 53.23653° Longitude -1.15409°

Cuckney Castle Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Thomas de Cuckney built a castle at Cuckney in Stephen's reign (1135 - 1154). The motte is at the western end of the churchyard. The north boundary of the churchyard follows an earth bank. A bank in the churchyard, running south from the northern boundary and west of the church tower may have divided the inner and outer bailey. There are no remains of the east or south sides. An adulterine castle. (PastScape ref. Barley, 1951)

The remains of a motte and bailey. St Mary's church has been erected within the bailey and this, together with subsequent graves, has destroyed any surface evidence of former internal structures. The perimeter ditch is well preserved to the west of the motte but there is no trace of the bailey ditch to the east suggesting the possibility that the work was never completed. (PastScape ref. Field Investigators Comments–F1 FDC 12-MAR-74)

Et praedictus Tho. nutritus fuit in curia domini regis, et post mortem patris sui Richari, tenuit illam terram per praedictum servitium, de praedicto rege, bene et in pace usque ad veterem guerram, et tunc fecit sibi castellum in praedicta terra de Cukeney. (And the said Thomas was educated in the court of his lord the King, and after the death of his father Richard the land was held by the above mentioned service for the said king well in peace until the old war, when he made a castle in the said land of Cukeney.) ( Monasticon Anglicanum translation by Philip Davis)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010909, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13393
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 318423.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) M4376.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  Castles by Dr Sarah Speight, The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway
Books
- Wright, James, 2008, Castles of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council) p. 62
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 85
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 203 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 380
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 217
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 161-2
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 447-8 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Speight, Sarah, 2004, ''Religion in the Bailey: Charters, Chapels and the Clergy' Château Gaillard Vol. 21 p. 271-80
  Speight, Sarah, 1994, 'Early Medieval Castles in Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 98 p. 66-7
  Thompson, M.W., 1986, 'Associated monasteries and castles in the Middle Ages: a tentative list' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 143 p. 317
  Barley, M.W., 1951, 'Cuckney church and castle' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 55 p. 26-29
  Oswald, Adrian, 1939 , 'Some unrecorded earthworks in Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 43 p. 7
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Dugdale, William (Caley, J., Ellis, H. and Bandinel, B. (eds)), 1817-30 (originally pub. 1655-73), Monasticon Anglicanum (London) Vol. 6.2 p. 873 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Gaunt, Andy, 2008, Topographic and gravestone surveys (NCC)
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 166-9, 477-8 online copy

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It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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