Broughton Castlethorpe, Lincolnshire

Description

"A great castle of Castlethorpe in King John's day",... "the ruins of which are now (1696) scarce to be seen, only the place where it stood is called Castle Hill to this day". (de la Pryme). The owner of this property stated that the moat was bulldozed in 1960. Many "very large squared stones" were met with, and also extensive foundation walls. Local opinion is that this was the site of De la Pryme's castle, but no authority was consulted or told of the finds and an expert examination of the site was never made. No pottery or implements were noted, but great haste seems to have been made in covering the diggings. In 1962 an attempt was made to deep plough and plant, but so much subterranean obstruction was encountered the attempt was abandoned. The whole field is now pasture, slight non-surveyable undulations only are visible on the surface (F1 FDC 15-JAN-64). The moated site and earthworks at Castlethorpe are now ploughed out and visible only as slight undulations in pasture (Loughlin and Millar). (PastScape)

Yesterday I could not go to Thornton , as I proposed , but however went to Castrop" in this parish, which town was formerly call'd Castlethorp, from a great castle that was there in King John's days, the ruins of which are now scarce to be seen, onely the place where it stood is called Castle Hill to this day. On the east side on the town, on your right as you go down to the commons, here are a great many foundations of houses to be seen. It has been as bigg again as it is, and was once a parish of itself. They say that it had a larg chappcli at it formerly, where now stands the stable on the south side of the east fold. I fancy that there has also been a religious house there where now the hall stands, because that I have observ'd, in the walls thereoff, arch'd windows, very low, near the ground, with cherubim heads on, and, in a neighbouring house over against the way, I say {saw} a piece of ceiling with these letters on in great characters, J.H.C., which signifies Jesus hominum Salvator; and this hall, I observe, has been moated about with a very deep ditch, as most religious houses were. This hall was built about the year 1600 (as appears from a stone over the gate), out of the ruins perhaps of the religious house. (Pryme written 1696)

Comments

Pryme seems to be recording an earthwork castle, presumably a motte (see Jackson footnote in his edition of Pryme's diary) and a later masonry house and chapel which he thought might be a religious house. This seems unlikely but this was clearly a large manor house with a castle name 'moated about with a very deep ditch' and with armorial decoration. The deep ploughing will, in all likelihood have entirely destroyed the site and even tracing the deep moat on geophysical survey may be difficult. The one difficulty with the site is the location. Canalisation of the River Ancholme and modern drainage works have completely altered the landscape for the medieval period but this does not seem ever to have been a large settlement site and not the site of a parish church. A castle site overlooked by the usual castle authorities and now all but lost from archaeological record.