Mere Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hough Hall; Strethul

In the civil parish of Mere.
In the historic county of Cheshire.
Modern Authority of Cheshire.
1974 county of Cheshire.
Medieval County of Cheshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ72168335
Latitude 53.34632° Longitude -2.41950°

Mere Castle has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Leland records 'The ditches and the plot where the castle of Mere stood' The only existing feature in the parish of Mere is Hough Hall recorded in PastScape as 'A moat with a platform roughly 30m square and a ditch 12-14m on three sides, now dry, but water-filled until 1938. A very wide ditch and arm 19-24m wide on the North-West side appears to be a fishpond. Ridge and furrow runs from the South-East to the North-West over the entire moat.'

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1011884, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13478
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 74937.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1273/1/1.

Periodical Articles
- Higham, N.J., 1988, 'Hough Hall: Trial Excavation of a Moated Platform in Mere Township' Medieval Settlement Research Group Annual Report Vol. 3 p. 20 online copy
  1984, Moated Sites Research Group report Vol. 11 p. 5-7
  Wilson, D., 1979, Moated Sites Research Group report Vol. 6 p. 8-9
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 1 p. 359-63 (tenurial history) online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 223 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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