Owston Grange (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Oliver Cromwell's Castle

In the civil parish of Owston and Newbold.
In the historic county of Leicestershire.
Modern Authority of Leicestershire.
1974 county of Leicestershire.
Medieval County of Leicestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK78790819
Latitude 52.66596° Longitude -0.83651°

Owston Grange has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

VCH records this site as a 'moated inclosure with stronger defensive works.'

In a field to the north of the road from Owston to Knossington is a large dry moat surmounted by a bank. (VCH)

This site is known locally as 'Oliver Cromwell's Castle'. It comprises a large sub-rectangular moat and an associated enclosure to the south. The moat measures 110m x 125m. The surrounding ditch is water-filled, 12m - 15m wide, and up to 3.0m deep at the south-east corner. An inturned corner of the moat on the north-west has an extra arm which projects into the island for a distance of 20m. An inner bank is identifiable on the south and east sides of the island. Attached to the south side of the moat is a large enclosure defined partly by a ditch 6m wide and 1m deep which runs the width of the field 60m to the south. This may have been a moated grange farm belonging to Owston Abbey. (PastScape–scheduling report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010305, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 17031
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 321125.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Wall, C., 1907, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol. 1 p. 270 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Bott, D.J., 1950, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 26 (plan) p. 132-39 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.
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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.

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.
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