Donnington Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Donington; Donyngton; Dennington; Dunnington

In the civil parish of Shaw cum Donnington.
In the historic county of Berkshire.
Modern Authority of West Berkshire.
1974 county of Berkshire.
Medieval County of Berkshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU461691
Latitude 51.41969° Longitude -1.33807°

Donnington Castle has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Medieval castle licensed circa 1386. Flint with stone dressings and some repairs in brick. Ruined courtyard with the remains of 6 towers. Gatehouse to east, possibly by Henry Yevele. 3 storeys. 2 circular towers at eastern corners of 4 stages with plinth and battlemented parapet. 2 square headed windows to east with moulded 4-centered arch below. Interior: Gatehall has 2 bay lierne vault with moulded ribs, cusped panels and carved bosses. (Listed Building Report)

Rectangular ward with small round angle-towers; rear projects in a 4-faced bay; large rectangular gatehouse with round towers on front. Licensed 1386. Vigorous defence in Civil War, when encircled in extensive earthworks. (King)

Richard de Abberbury received a licence from the king in 1386 to rebuild and crenellate a castle on his land at Donnington, and after this date the castle is mentioned in references to the manor. Its commanding position overlooks the crossing of two of the main north-south and east-west roads of England, but the only surviving building is the three-storey gatehouse which was added to a slightly earlier quadrangular building. The present ruined courtyard west of the gatehouse was probably a mid 14th century bailey with buildings on all sides. The curtain wall with four round corner towers and two square wall towers can be traced, but the walls now only exist to a height of a metre or less (extensively rebuilt). Most of this damage was caused during the Civil War siege of Donnington Castle, from July 1644 to April 1646, when the Parliamentarians bombarded the castle using cannons. The Royalist Colonel John Boys also altered the monument by constructing the star fort earthworks around it in 1643, when it was garrisoned. Camden described Donnington as 'a small but very neat castle, seated on the banks of a woody hill, having a fair prospect and windows in all sides very lightsome'. In 1415 the manor of Donnington was sold to Thomas Chaucer, who was probably the son of Geoffrey Chaucer, although the poet had died by this time. The castle's glory days were during the Civil War when it was garrisoned for King Charles I; after the destruction of the siege, the estate's owner John Packer abandoned the building in favour of the Elizabethan lodge which became Donnington Castle House. The gatehouse however appears to have been inhabited until the beginning of the 20th century; a small cottage was constructed inside the courtyard against the ruined northeast wall, but this was later removed. (West Berkshire HER)

The gatehouse remains complete and the external walls have been rebuilt to a height of 0.5m. The temporary Civil War works remain for the most part as scarps averaging 1.7m high. (PastScape ref. Field Investigators Comments–F1 JP 15-OCT-63)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1386 June 11 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1007926, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 19013
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1291031
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 233041.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MWB1545.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- English Heritage
  Britannia America's Gateway to the British Isles since 1996
  David Nash Ford's Historic Buildings of Berkshire
  Wikipedia entry
  Historic England Viewfinder
  Historic England Viewfinder
  Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  CastleUK.net
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 318, 409, 451
  Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 83-5
  Elliot, Julia (ed), 2005, Heritage Unlocked; Guide to free sites in London and the South East (London: English Heritage) p. 94-5
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 18-21
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 5
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 10-11
  Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 219-10
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1966, Buildings of England: Berkshire p. 128
  Oman, Charles W.C., 1926, Castles (1978 edn Beetham House: New York) p. 38-41
  Page, Wm and Ditchfield, P.H. (eds), 1924, VCH Berkshire Vol. 4 p. 93-4 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 171-4 online copy
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 2 (London) p. 63-4 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 278, 419 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1853, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 2 p. 269 online copy
  Gray, E.W. (ed)?, pre 1839, The History and Antiquities of Newbury and its Environs p. 67-72, 174
  Lysons, D. and S., 1806, Magna Britannia Vol. 1 p. 355-7, 461-2 (history)
  Buck, Samuel and Nathaniel, 1774, Buck's Antiquities (London) Vol. 1 p. 6
  Grose, Francis, 1783 (new edn orig 1756), Antiquities of England and Wales (London) Vol. 1 p. 5-9 and plates online copy
Periodical Articles
- Thompson, M.W., 1986, 'Associated monasteries and castles in the Middle Ages: a tentative list' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 143 p. 318
  Macnamara, 1898, 'Historic Houses: Donnington Castle' Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 4 p. 48-60, 70-5 (history) download copy
  Godwin, H., 1873, Archaeologia Society of Antiquaries of London Vol. 44 p. 459-79 (history)
  J.H.J., 1797, Gentleman's Magazine p. 185
Guidebooks
- Wood, M., 1964, Donnington Castle (HMSO)
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), 1900, Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II (1385-89) Vol. 3 p. 156 (Licence to crenellate) online copy
  C145/103(10-20) (Survey of 1326) The National Archives reference (calendared in Maxwell Lyte, H.C., 1916, Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), preserved in the Public Record Office (H.M.S.O.) Vol. 2 p. 229 No. 922 online copy)
  DL44/105 (Survey of 6 Elizabeth) The National Archives reference
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- West Berkshire Museum. 2006. Heritage Guide No 2 - Donnington Castle

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

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