Northwich Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ655737
Latitude 53.25914° Longitude -2.51935°

Northwich Castle Hill has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The Castle Hill area of Northwich derives its name from the site of an ancient fortress commanding the junction of the Dane and the Weaver. The site of the fortress is a triangular field of about 3 acres, bounded on the other side by a small brook. Its present remains consist of 2 high mounds of unequal height and there are no remains of walls, or indications of other earthworks. Excavations have shown the mounds to be natural and earthworks shown on OS plans of the area are terraced gardens. (Cheshire HER)

Castle Northwich derives its name from the site of an ancient fortress the remains of which consist of two mounds. There are no walls or other earthworks (Ormerod). Recent excavations have proved the mounds to be natural (Watkin). The site indicated is on steeply sloping ground covered with grass and trees. It is a most unlikely situation for a castle. No trace was found of the mounds referred to. Earthworks shown on O.S. plans of the area are terraced gardens (Field Investigators Comments–F1 JHW 19-SEP-61). (PastScape)

Comments

Medieval sources given by Rickard as to owners and sub tenants in the C13 and C14 probably do not relate to this site but a manor house. Despite the comments in PastScape the site is not impossible as a castle site, it is close to the parish church and major river crossing and almost certainly an administrative centre. Quite how military and fortified even the early manor house was may be of question. It seems fairly clear that the earthworks were not those of a castle but a fortified manorial and administrative site near to this location is a distinct possibility. The castle place-names in the area are taken to refer to a Roman fort but this, of itself, is not evidence of absence of a Norman fortification.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 72993.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 722/1.

Books
- Grimsditch, Brian, Nevell, Michael and Nevell, Richard, 2012, Buckton Castle and the Castles of the North West England (University of Salford Archaeological Monograph 2) p. 111
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  Cullen, P.W. and Hordern, R., 1986, Castles of Cheshire (Crossbow Books) p. 12
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 69
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 356
  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. 177 online copy
  Watkin, W.T., 1886, Roman Cheshire p. 253
  Ormerod, G., 1882 (2edn), History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 2 p. 2, 196
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 3 p. 91-92 (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1970, CBA Group 5 Vol. 14-15 p. 8-9
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 201-2 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- B.M. Harleian M.S. 2074 f.189 (castle derelict by 1199) (Now held by the British Library
  Rickard, John, 2002, The Castle Community. The Personnel of English and Welsh Castles, 1272-1422 (Boydell Press) (lists sources for 1272-1422) p. 140

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.
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