Laxton Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Panpudding Hill

In the civil parish of Laxton And Moorhouse.
In the historic county of Nottinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Nottinghamshire.
1974 county of Nottinghamshire.
Medieval County of Nottinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK72046746
Latitude 53.20085° Longitude -0.92355°

Laxton Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle, and also as a certain Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Medieval motte and bailey castle, consisting of a fine motte with an inner and an outer bailey. A hall is documented on the site in 1204 and is thought to have stood in the outer bailey, along with a dovecote which was built in 1213-14. The outer bailey also contains the remains of a manor house, built on the site in C16. The bailey may have been modified at this time to create a garden setting for the house. The motte stands circa 10m high and is surrounded by a ditch. A small mound in the centre of the summit post-dates the castle and may represent the remains of a windmil mound or possibly a prospect mound, designed to provide views over the gardens. The earthwork remains include building platforms, a possible well and cellars, two hollow ways and a number of fishponds. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1008188, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 23204
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 322622.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) M4158.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Laxton Castle
  Archaeology and History of Medieval Sherwood Forest (Andy Gaunt's Blog)
  CastleUK.net
  The Laxton Village Survey
  Castles by Dr Sarah Speight, The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
Books
- Wright, James, 2008, Castles of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council) p. 35, 67
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 87
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 201
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 380
  Chambers, 1964, Laxton: The Last English Open Field Village (HMSO) p. 32-3
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 979-80
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1951, Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire (London) p. 94-5
  Orwin, C.S. and Orwin, C.S., 1935, The history of Laxton online copy
  Stevenson, W., 1906, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Nottinghamshire Vol. 1 p. 306-7 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Speight, Sarah, 2008, 'Castles as Past Culture: Living with Castles in the Post-Medieval World' Château Gaillard Vol. 23 p. 385-94 (slight)
  Speight, Sarah, 2006, 'Castles and Settlement in Rural Nottinghamshire: Laxton, Egmanton and Greasley' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 325-34
  Challis, K. and Speight, S., 2005, 'Laxton, the castle' in Speight, S. (ed) 'Archaeology in Nottinghamshire: 2004-2005' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 109 p. 157-60
  Speight, Sarah, 2005, 'East Midlands Castles - A Research Agenda' Castle Studies Group Bulletin Vol. 18 p. 148-49 (reconstruction)
  Creighton, O.H., 2004, ''The Rich Man in his Castle, The Poor Man at His Gate': Castle Baileys and Settlement Patterns in Norman England' Château Gaillard Vol. 21 p. 25-36
  Speight, Sarah, 1994, 'Early Medieval Castles in Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 98 p. 59-61
  Cameron, A., 1980,' Laxton before 1635' East Midlands Georgrapher Vol. 7.6 p. 219-26
  Chalkley Gould, I., 1907, 'Some Nottinghamshire Strongholds' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 13 p. 51-64 esp. 59-60 (plan) online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 210 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Kincey, M., Challis, K. and Speight, S., 2006, Laxton Castle Survey Report on the 2006 Season of Work (Birmingham Archaeology and The University of Nottingham) online copy
  Kincey, M., Challis, K. and Speight, S., 2006, Laxton Castle Survey Report on the 2006 Season of Work (Birmingham Archaeology and The University of Nottingham) online copy
  Kincey, M., Challis, K. and Speight, S., 2005, Laxton Castle Survey Report on the 2005 Season of Work (Birmingham Archaeology and The University of Nottingham) online copy
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 265-71, 484 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
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.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

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