Ilton Castle, Malborough (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hilton; Yedilton

In the civil parish of Malborough.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SX72564042
Latitude 50.24899° Longitude -3.78979°

Ilton Castle, Malborough has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The earthwork remains of a deserted medieval settlement, a quadrangular castle, an associated garden and two fishponds. The western part of the settlement contains the earthworks of at least 13 small rectangular buildings. The eastern part lies on the north side of the valley and includes at least 3 small buildings and a hollow way. Cultivation terraces lie along the north and south sides of the site and several 18th century watermeadow leats cut across the earthworks, with a pond attached to one of them. The castle was documented in 1335 and stood on a terrace towards the east end of the site. A description of 1780, made when the walls were demolished, states that it was sub-rectangular with square corner towers. The earthwork terraces of an extensive formal garden lie to the east, west and north of the castle. 2 large fishponds once lay south of the castle site. One survives as an earthwork but the other is now buried beneath a modern farmstead. These ponds were used as an ornamental lake. (PastScape–ref. Scheduled Monument Notification)

A medieval quadrangular castle was licenced to John de Cheverston in 1335 and stood on a terrace towards the east end of the monument. The terrace measures 30 metres east to west by 25 metres north to south. A description made when the castle walls were demolished in 1780, states that it was sub-rectangular with square towers at the corners. Slight earthworks show the positions of the towers and parchmaks confirm its location. (Devon and Dartmoor HER ref. Schedule Document)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1335 Sept 10 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Comments

The local farmer reported very little stone turned up on ploughing when the site was investigated in 1987 (PastScape–Field Investigators Comments-F1 MJF 27-JAN-87) suggesting the castle has been very effectively demolished and the stone totally quarried away. This may also suggest the castle was not particularly thick walled. By 1335 square towers are, supposedly, a feature of northern enclosure castles, with southern castles having round towers but this site shows the dangers of such assumption based on a relatively few surviving castles.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1019947, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 33788
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 444537.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 64826.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 695
  Waterhouse, R., 2003, 'Garden Archaeology in South Devon' in Robert Wilson-North (ed) The Lie of the Land (The Mint Press and Devon Gardens Trust) p. 66-82
  Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 136-43
  Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 87 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 120
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 411 online copy
  Lysons, D. and S., 1822, Magna Britannia Vol. 6 Devon p. 329 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Waterhouse, R.E., 2000, 'Keynedon Barton, Sherford, Kingsbridge' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol 58 p. 195
  Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 142-9
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), 1895, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1334-38) Vol. 3 p. 167 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 115
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 222 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 40 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 South West (London: English Heritage) p. 107 online copy
  EH Scheduling amendment, 06-MAR-2002

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
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