Modbury Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SX65625164
Latitude 50.34931° Longitude -3.89013°

Modbury Castle has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

At the west end of the town are the slight remains of the Champernoun's mansion (Hoskins). At the W end of the town are the supposed remains of the once famous Champernoun mansion. They stand close to the churchyard (Pevsner). Modbury was the home of the Champernownes from the reign of Edward I to the beginning of the 18th century. A licence to crenellate was granted temp. Edward III (JBAA, 33). Licence to crenellate granted 1334 (Higham). The mansion (Modbury House) was taken down in 1705 (White). Taken by a Parliamentary garrison in Dec 1642. In 1698, the remains of Modbury Castle were conveyed to Mrs Sarah Champernowne, who sold "what remained of the old castle" for the materials in 1705. A small part of the mansion yet (c.1822) remains, said to have been a dining room now converted into a stable and hay loft (Lysons). (Devon and Dartmoor HER)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1334 June 1 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 441314.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 19150.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 695
  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)
  Hoskins, W.G., 1954, A New Survey of England: Devon (London: Collins) p. 435
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1952, Buildings of England: South Devon p. 207
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 355-6, 410 online copy
  White, 1850, History and Directory of Devon p. 545 online copy
  Lysons, D. and S., 1822, Magna Britannia Vol. 6 Devon p. 342- online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 142-9
  1927, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 33 p. 126
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), 1893, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1330-34) Vol. 2 p. 554 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Higham, R.A., 1979, The Castles of Medieval Devon (University of Exeter PhD Thesis) Downloadable from EThOS

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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.
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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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