Cressage Old Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Cressage.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ59220426
Latitude 52.63463° Longitude -2.60402°

Cressage Old Hall has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Old Hall, a 17th century timber-framed house, stands on the site of a manor-house first mentioned in 1369. It overlooks a ford across the Severn, and occupies the bailey of an early motte-and- bailey castle, the motte of which was partially destroyed when the railway was built. When a garden was being made below the east front of the Hall in 1923, the surface below the lawn was found to be flagged, probably the remains of the paved bottom of the moat (VCH 1968; Wright 1872; Annotated Record Map - L F Chitty 19.2.49)
The Old Hall is now a hotel and has additions to the south-west face making much of the original building. The north-east face appears to be original with timber framing filled with modern brick above the ground floor. Not outstanding.
Only the south-facing scarp of the motte remains, to a height of 3.4m. The rest of the mound has been destroyed by the railway.
An ornamental duckpond at SJ 59270419 represents the remains of the moat, but it does not retain any moat-like features (F1 DRB 25-JAN-71).
Noted in list of moated sites in Shropshire SJ 592042. Dubious, now destroyed (MSRGR 1980). (PastScape)

Fragment of moat (VCH 1908).
The Old Hall (SA 13267) stands on the site of a manor house first mentioned in 1369. It overlooks a ford across the Severn and occupies the bailey of an earlier motte and bailey castle, the motte of which was partially destroyed when the railway was built. When a wall garden below the east front of the Old Hall was being made in 1923 the surface below the present lawn was found to be flagged, probably the remains of the paved bottom of the moat (VCH 1968).
Old Hall (SA 13267) is now an hotel.. Only the south facing scarp of the motte remains to a height of 3.4m at SJ5922 0426. the rest of the mound has been destroyed by the railway. An ornamental duck-pond at SJ59270419 represents the remains of the (supposed) moat but it does not retain any moat-like features (OS FI 1971).
Motte consists of a crescent shaped mound c 20m x 3.5m high, which has a covering of mainly deciduous trees (A Tyler FI 1979).
The site is not a moated site but a motte and bailey. The waterfilled feature in the garden of the Hall, mistaken for a moat, is in fact a section of the bailey ditch(M Watson FI 1980). (Shropshire HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1366867
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 70145.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01751.

Books
- Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 69
  Mitchell, R., 2003, A Short History of the Old Hall and Manor of Cressage (Shrewsbury: Robin Mitchell)
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 22
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 424
  Gaydon, A.T. (ed), 1968, VCH Shropshire Vol. 8 p. 74-5
  Wall (after Downham), 1908, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Shropshire Vol. 1 p. 403
  Wright, T. 1872, Uriconium p. 47 online copy
  Eyton, R.W., 1858, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 6 p. 308- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1980, Moated Sites Research Group report Vol. 7 p. 50
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124

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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
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