Eccleswall Castle, Linton

Description

Eccleswall Castle. The earthworks at Eccleswall Court have been much destroyed by cart tracks, farmyards etc. The flat-topped mound E of the modern buildings, has no scarp on the W side, but there are remains of a ditch on the south. To the E is a slight terrace and to the N is a large pond. About 170 yards below the site are a series of three ponds, now dry, formed by cross-banks. In the walls of the garden are some re-used stones, and above the entrance to the pigeon house is a label-stop carved as a man's head in a basinet. In poor condition. (RCHME). In the reign of Henry II Richard de Talbot obtained a grant of the lordship of Eccleswall and Linton, and he may have erected the castle, but no record exists, and now nothing remains except a grass-grown moat and a low mount of earth. Some fragments of masonry built into the farm premises which occupy the site may have belonged to the castle. (VCH) Probable fish-ponds are now an ill-defined marshy area at SO 65652344. Remains of the chapel consist of a single tower, of indeterminate date, incorporated into outbuildings at SO 65252324. (Field Investigators Comments F1 RWE 09-MAY-67) Eccleswell Castle, visited by King John in 1216, was allowed to fall into ruin when its owners acquired Goodrich Castle in 1342. There was formerly a chapel in Eccleswell Castle, to which the last presentation was made in March 1541. (Duncumb) The square, stone walled pigeon house at Eccleswell Court has three pointed lancet windows and was probably not built as a pigeon house; the walls are only 18" thick. (Watkins, 1890) SO 653234. The bank of the ringwork at Eccleswell Court has been destroyed. (King & Alcock, 1969). (PastScape)

the first reference to a castle was in 1726. In the medieval records Eccleswall is referred to as a manor. The Talbots had owned the manor since the time of Henry I. (Herefordshire SMR ref. Paul Remfry)