Kinderton Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ70806702
Latitude 53.19939° Longitude -2.43929°

Kinderton Hall has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Medieval moat surviving as earthwork and site of Old Kinderton Hall demolished in C18. Alleged site of castle at Domesday. The moated island is slightly trapezoidal from 40 to 50m east to west by 50m north to south. Fishponds are visible. Formal garden earthworks are present. Rejected by King as garden mound and moat.

'The antient hall of Kinderton stood near the banks of the Dane, at the distance of two fields breadth from the site of the Roman works of (the supposed) Condate, which probably suggested a position for the Norman head of this barony. A part only of the moat is remaining, but it formerly inclosed a parallelogram of several acres, in the south-west angle of which is a large circular mound, which was most probably raised to support the keep tower.' (Ormerod)

The earthworks mentioned by Ormerod and Mackenzie are not the remains of a castle, but comprise a medieval moat (SJ 76 NW 6) and a prospect mound within a post medieval formal garden (SJ 76 NW 23). Contrary to Mackenzie, Domesday does not mention a castle at Kinderton. The confusion seems to have been caused by Kinderton's status as the head of a barony with the consequent expectation that there should be a baronial castle here. Although such a castle may once have existed, there is no surface trace of it in the vicinity of Kinderton Hall. (PastScape–Field Investigators Comments–Paul Everson/10-SEP-1986/RCHME)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1012358, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13492
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 932114; 74705; 932103.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 753/1/1.

Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 69 (reject)
  Dodgson, J.McN., 1970, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Part 2 (English Place-Name Society 45) p. 236-7
  Ridgway, Maurice Hill, 1958, 'Medieval Castles' in Sylvester, D. and Nulty, G. (eds), The Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Cheshire Community Council) p. 24-5
  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. 2 p. 175 online copy
  Ormerod, G., 1882 (2edn), History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 3 p. 201
  1860, History, Gazeteer and Directory of Cheshire (White, F. and Co) p. 510
  Gastrell, F., 1845, Notita Cestriensis Vol. 1 p. 249
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 3 p. 108 (tenurial history) 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.
- Vale Royal Borough Council: Ancient Monument No 13492 online copy

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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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