Jordan's Castle, Wellow (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Grimestone; Grimston; Grymeston

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SK67916652
Latitude 53.19155° Longitude -0.98458°

Jordan's Castle, Wellow has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Medieval ringwork castle, consisting of a bank and ditch with an entrance on the south west side. There is evidence for a fortified manor house here from about 1252, when Jordan Foliot was licensed to embattle his manor house, although no trace of this is now visible. The interior of the ringwork contains traces of ridge and furrow. The earthwork remains of a hollow way and fishpond also survive. (PastScape)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1264 Feb 28 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).
A Royal licence to crenellate was confirmed in 1264 March 9.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010916, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13394
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 320332.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) M4096.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Castles by Dr Sarah Speight, The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway
Books
- Steven Trick, Duncan Wright and Oliver Creighton, 2016, 'Wellow, Nottinghamshire' in Duncan Wright and Oliver Creighton (eds), Castles, Siegeworks and Settlements Surveying the Archaeology of the Twelfth Century (Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd) p. 141-42
  Wright, James, 2008, Castles of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council) p. 37 (plan), 71
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 381 (possible)
  Stevenson, W., 1906, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Nottinghamshire Vol. 1 p. 250, 304-5 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 402 (as Grimestone, not identify with this site) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Crook, D., 2008, 'Jordan Castle and the Foliot family of Grimston, 1225-1330' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 112 p. 143-58
  Speight, Sarah, 1994, 'Early Medieval Castles in Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 98 p. 67-8
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Barley, M.W., 1957, 'Cistercian land clearance in Nottinghamshire: three deserted villages and their moated sucessors' Nottingham Medieval Studies Vol. 1 p. 77
  Oswald, Adrian, 1939 , 'Some unrecorded earthworks in Nottinghamshire' Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire Vol. 43 p. 15
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 190?, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1258-66) Vol. 5 p. 307 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 190?, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1258-66) Vol. 5 p. 382 online copy
  Nottinghamshire Archives, Grymeston Licence to Crenelate, 1264, DD/SR/102/166 online reference
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Pre Construct Geophysics, 2005, Geophysical survey (NCC)
  Gill Stroud, 2001, Nottinghamshire Extensive Urban Survey Archaeological Assessment Wellow (Nottinghamshire County Council for English Hertage) online copy
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 489 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.

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