Shotwick Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Description

Motte and bailey castle on the crest of a steep escarpment above the east bank of the former course of the River Dee. Its defensive position is enhanced by two steep sided watercourses flanking it on the north and south sides. The motte itself is a small mound, hexagonal in plan and 40m by 20m at the top. From limited excavation in C19 there appears to be the foundations of a stone keep surviving to a depth of 2.3m under the turf. The motte ditch surrounds the motte and is about 25m wide and 3m deep. This would have been flooded at high tide. To south east is a small bailey 38m wide at the top. Built by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, during C11. Under various owners formed part of the defence of the borders with the Welsh until 1281 when peace was finally made with the rulers of Wales. In 1327 the manor was emparked as a royal game park for the recreation of Edward III. The last major repairs are documented in 1371. (PastScape)

Shotwick was one of the castles of the earldom of Chester that came into the King's hands in 1237. Although it commanded a ford over the River Dee, it was never of more than minor importance, and when the Black Prince visited in 1353, at which time it was not even garrisoned, it was described as a manor rather than a castle. Last major repairs documented in 1371. (HKW)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1016616, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13452
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 67153.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2025/1/1.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Wikipedia entry
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. 104
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 21
  Everson, P.L., 1998, ''Delighfully surrounded with woods and ponds' field evidence for medieval gardens in England' in P. Patterson (ed), There by Design (London: RCHME) p. 35-6
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 17 (slight)
  Cullen, P.W. and Hordern, R., 1986, Castles of Cheshire (Crossbow Books) p. 9-10
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 68
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 297
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 310-11
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 833-4
  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)
  Barber, 1910, in Barber and Ditchfield, Memories of Old Cheshire (London) p. 51-2
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 180-1 online copy
  Sulley, P., 1889, The Hundred of Wirral p. 114-16
  Ormerod, G., 1882 (2edn), History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 2 p. 571
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 2 p. 314-15 (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Swallow, Rachel, 2016, 'Cheshire Castles of the Irish Sea Cultural Zone' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 173.2 p. 288-341
  Taylor, C., 2000, 'Medieval Ornamental Landscapes' Landscapes Vol. 1 p. 38-55 (reprinted in Liddiard, Robert (ed), 2016, Late Medieval Castles (Boydell Press) p. 375-392)
  RCHME, 1998-99, 'Shotwick Castle, Cheshire' Castle Studies Group Newsletter No. 12 p. 30 online copy
  May 1997, 'News–Ornamental water garden found at Cheshire castle' British Archaeology No. 24
  Carrington, Peter, 1993, 'Shotwick Castle: anatomy of a reconstruction painting' Chester City Council Archaeological Service News No. 4 p. 2-3 online copy
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1970, 'Castles in Wales and the Marches (Additions and corrections to lists published in 1963 and 1967)' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 119 p. 119-124
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1967, 'Masonry castles in Wales and the Marches: a list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 116 p. 71-132
  Hewitt, H.J., 1929, 'Medieval Cheshire: an economic and social history of Cheshire in the reigns of the three Edwards' Chetham Society New Series Vol. 88 p. 96
  Stewart-Brown, R., 1912, 'The royal manor and park of Shotwick' Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Vol. 64 p. 82-142 (illus, plan)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- 1916, Calendar of Liberate Rolls Henry III (1226-1240) Vol. 1 p. 451
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 56
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1906 The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 3 p. 101 online copy; Vol. 5 p. 24 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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio