Woodhead Castle, Great Casterton (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Woodhead Moat; Wodeheved; Wodheved

In the civil parish of Great Casterton.
In the historic county of Rutland.
Modern Authority of Rutland.
1974 county of Leicestershire.
Medieval County of Rutland.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK99631160
Latitude 52.69332° Longitude -0.52691°

Woodhead Castle, Great Casterton has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Woodhead Castle is a moated ringwork with an attached bailey enclosure and an outlying fishpond. The moated ringwork measures approximately 90m x 90m in maximum dimension with arms 12m wide and 4m deep, except in the north-western corner where the moat has been enlarged and is currently waterlogged. The moat island exhibits an inner bank comprising the remains of a stone wall which survives to a height of 1m in the south-eastern area. The foundations of buildings, including a chapel, occur in the northern half of the island. There are two entrances, one on the western side and one on the eastern side leading to the outer bailey. The outer bailey is sub-rectangular in plan and is demarcated by a low bank about 5m wide which encloses an area of 80m x 70m. An entrance to the enclosure on its eastern side is aligned with the two access points of the moated ringwork. On the south side of the ringwork is a small rectangular fishpond measuring approximately 10m x 20m considered to be contemporary with the rest of the monument. Woodhead Castle is identified as being of medieval date, being visited by Edward I in 1290, and there are documentary records of a chapel and buildings on the site, which were in ruin by 1543. (Scheduling Report)

Medieval moated ringwork with attached bailey with outlying fishpond surviving as earthworks. The buildings including a chapel, ruinous in 1543, are visible as building foundations. The moated ringwork measures approximately 90m by 90m with arms 12m wide and 4m deep, except in the north-western corner where the moat has been enlarged. The moat island exhibits an inner bank and stone wall surviving to a height of 1m in the south-east area. The foundations of buildings, including a chapel, are to be seen on the north side of the island. The outer fishpond is thought to be contemporary with the monument. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010923, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 17007
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 325346.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MLE5318.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Abaroth's World
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
Books
- Knox, Richard, 2015, 'The medieval fortified sites of Leicestershire and Rutland' in Medieval Leicestershire: Recent research on the Medieval Archaeology of Leicester (Liecestershire Fieldworks 3) p. 123-42
  Cantor, Leonard, 2003, The Scheduled Ancient Monuments of Leicestershire and Rutland (Leicester: Kairos Press) p. 39
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 417
  Hartley, R. F., 1983, The Mediaeval Earthworks of Rutland, A survey (Leicester) p. 17
  Brown, A.E., 1975, Archaeological Sites and Finds in Rutland, a Preliminary List (Leicester: Leicester University Press) p. 12-13
  Page, Wm (ed), 1935, VCH Rutland Vol. 2 p. 232, 235 online copy
  Wall, C.J., 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Rutland Vol. 1 p. 114-5 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 2000, 'The Medieval Castles of Rutland: Field Archaeology and Landscape History' Rutland Record Vol. 20 p. 415-24
  Creighton, O.H., 1999, 'Early Castles in the Medieval Landscape of Rutland' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 73 p. 19-33 (plan) online copy
  Irons, E.A., 1917, 'Woodhead Castle' Annual Report of the Rutland Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. 15 p. 50-51
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 286-9, 515-6 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.

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