Annesley Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Anelegh

In the civil parish of Annesley.
In the historic county of Nottinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Nottinghamshire.
1974 county of Nottinghamshire.
Medieval County of Nottinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK509518
Latitude 53.06139° Longitude -1.24091°

Annesley Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Medieval motte and bailey castle in Annesley Park. It comprises a flat-topped motte with a bailey to the north. Fragments of bank and ditch across the bailey may indicate that it was divided into two courts. The motte has a diameter of 42m and is 2m high. On the east and southeast the natural slope drops steeply away; there is the slight unsurveyable depression of a ditch on the north. The defences of the bailey appear to have consisted of a bank with an outer ditch which are only extant at the north-east corner. Elsewhere the bank followed the crest of the slope and now appears as a step-like scarping of that slope. Where it is best preserved the bank is 7m wide and 0.8m high, with a ditch of equivalent dimensions. The transvere bank is visible for a length of 40m and averages 8m wide and 2m high. There are traces of a ditch on the north side. (PastScape)

Geophysical survey in 2004 revealed buried banks and ditches of the baileys and ridge and furrow ploughing across the outer bailey. (James Wright 2010)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1009305, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13399
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 318069.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) M2563.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway
Books
- Wright, James, 2008, Castles of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council) p. 11, 37, 42, 60
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 84
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 379
  Stevenson, W., 1906, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Nottinghamshire Vol. 1 p. 305, 367-8 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Speight, Sarah, 1994, 'Early Medieval Castles in Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 98 p. 63, 66
  Coulson, C., 1994, 'Freedom to Crenellate by Licence - An Historiographical Revision' Nottingham Medieval Studies Vol. 38 p. 108-9
  Crook, David, 1979, 'The struggle over forest boundaries in Nottinghamshire, 1218-1227' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 83 p. 35-4
  Stevenson, W., 1918, 'Pinxton Castle' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 40 p. 84 online copy
  Musters, L.Chaworth, 1903, 'Some account of the family called in Latin Cadurcis, in French Chaources, and in English Chaworth' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 7 p. 130
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk East Midlands Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 65 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk East Midlands Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 59 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 59 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 58 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 67 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 61 online copy
  Wright, James, 2010 Dec 9, pers. corr.
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 54 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 39 online copy
  Pre Construct Geophysics, 2004 April, Geophysical survey
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 250-2, 475 online copy
  Groves, G.,1987, Gazetteer of Minor Moated and Fortified Sites in Nottinghamshire (Unpub MA Thesis; University of Nottingham) p. 15

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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.
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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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