Doddington Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Delves Hall; Dodynton; Dodyngton

In the civil parish of Doddington .
In the historic county of Cheshire.
Modern Authority of Cheshire.
1974 county of Cheshire.
Medieval County of Cheshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ70874702
Latitude 53.01970° Longitude -2.43562°

Doddington Tower has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House, and also as a probable Pele Tower.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Fortified structure which is the only surviving building on the site of a moated manor probably built between 1365-1403. The tower is constructed of coursed sandstone with a slate roof, and is three storeys in height with a wall-walk above. The tower was free standing and probably intended as a place of refuge for the family. In early C17 the tower was incorporated into a range of domestic buildings of which nothing now survives. C17 house was demolished and replaced by a house built from 1777 by Samuel Wyatt. The tower was retained as a landscape feature and presumably was used as a gazebo or banqueting pavilion. (PastScape)

The owner of the manor, Sir John Delves obtained licence to crenellate 1365 and the surviving 3 storey pele tower is believed to have been the result of this. It is the only surviving structure on the site of a medieval moated manor house. In the 17th century the tower used to form one end of a Jacobean mansion. This building was demolished when the present mansion was built. The tower remained as a garden feature and at this time a 17th century staircase and 6 statues of The Black Prince, Audley and four Cheshire Knights was added. (Cheshire HER)

A Chester Palatinate licence to crenellate was granted in 1364 July 9 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).
A Chester Palatinate licence to crenellate was granted in 1403 Feb 23.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1330165
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 74464.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 235/1/2.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 17
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 530
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 16
  de Figueiredo, P. and Treuherz, J., 1988, Cheshire Country Houses (Chichester: Phillimore) p. 72
  Cullen, P.W. and Hordern, R., 1986, Castles of Cheshire (Crossbow Books) p. 26
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 67
  Pevsner, Nikolaus and Edward Hubbard, 1971, Buildings of England: Cheshire p. 198-199
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 169-70 online copy
  Ormerod, G., 1882 (2edn), History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 3 p. 522, 524
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 219 online copy
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 3 p. 265-9 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Bird, S. et al, 1996, Garden History Vol. 24 p. 167-83
  Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation: An Essay in the Sociology and Metaphysics of Medieval Fortification' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 26 p. 95n2 download copy
  Nares, 1953, Country Life Vol. 113 p. 344-8
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- 1875, 36th Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records app. 2 p. 143, 144, 148 see online copy (Chester Recognizance Roll, 38 & 39 Edw. III. m. 1d; 4 & 5 Hen. IV, m. 10d)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk North West Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 2 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk North West Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 2 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 2 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 2 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 20 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 20 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 17 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 27 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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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