The Gatehouse website record of a licence to crenellate for Chideock Castle granted on late C13

GATEHOUSE

The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.

Home

The listings

Other Info

Books

Links

Downloads

Contact

Print Page

Next Record

Previous Record

Back to list

In late C13, John Gervase was possibly granted, by Edward I, a Royal licence to crenellate (Chideock Castle)

There is insufficient evidence to be certain about this possible licence to crenellate. (Some licences may be lost from record and others may have wrongly presumed to have been granted or may be total inventions.)

Comments

There is a typescript of a thesis in the NMRC library - Upton, KL, 1978: “The Moated Sites of Dorset” pp11-12 which suggests an earlier date. The dissertation gives the date of 1248 as the year when Thomas Le Brithun was given the manor, but does not give an exact date for the later official licence to crenellate, except to say that it was during the reign of Edward I. The dissertation allegedly drew upon material then held in the Dorset Record Office (the Dorset file was apparently P6 T.10/1).
Robin Page
English Heritage
Projects Team Officer
Datasets Development
Heritage Data Management
National Monuments Record Centre
It should be noted there was a licence granted in 1370 (late C14) by Edward III. Gatehouse has not seen Upton's Thesis or the referenced Dorset Record Office file. If anyone could make this available Gatehouse would be most grateful.

Significant later sources are;

Upton, K.L., 1978: The Moated Sites of Dorset p. 11-12 (unpublished thesis)

More information about licences to crenellate can be found here.

Please do inform Gatehouse if you see any errors, can add information or can otherwise help to improve this resource. Please contact Gatehouse.