Buckton Castle
Buckton Castle | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Enclosure castle |
Town or city | Carrbrook, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 53°30′40″N 2°01′04″W / 53.5112°N 2.0178°W |
Completed | 12th century |
Technical details | |
Material | Sandstone |
Size | 730 square metres (7,900 sq ft) |
Buckton Castle was a
In the 16th century, the site may have been used as a beacon for the
Location
Buckton Castle lies 335 metres (1,099 ft) above sea level on Buckton Hill, a steep sandstone ridge (grid reference SD98920162). To the south and west are the valleys of the Carr Brook and River Tame respectively. Buckton Vale Quarry is close to the east of the castle, while the town of Stalybridge is about four kilometres (2 mi) south-west of the site.[1] To the north and north-east of the castle are areas of moorland with heather and peat.[2] The site may have been chosen to allow the castle's garrison to guard the Tame Valley.[3]
During the Middle Ages, Buckton Castle was at the eastern end of Cheshire. The county shares its western border with Wales.
Compared to Herefordshire and Shropshire, which were also on the Anglo-Welsh border, Cheshire has far fewer castles per square kilometre. Most of the county's castles are close to the western border where the historically richer parts of Cheshire are concentrated. The county is mostly lowland, and Beeston is the only other castle in the area that rises as prominently above the surrounding landscape.[4] According to the archaeologist Rachel Swallow, hilltop castles in the area, which include Buckton, Beeston, Halton and Mold, are "predominantly a symbol of significant offensive and elite personal power in these landscapes".[9]
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A late 16th-century map of Cheshire; Buckton Castle lies in the north-east of the county.
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The view north-west from Buckton Castle. The castle is on a hill 335 metres (1,099 ft) above sea level.
History
Construction and use
The earliest castles in England typically were constructed from timber, at least when they were first built, as building in stone was more expensive.
Buckton Castle was probably built in the 12th century and there are three identifiable periods of medieval activity at the site: the initial construction phase, in which the ditch was dug and the curtain wall and gatehouse built; the re-cutting of the ditch and further building work behind the curtain wall; and finally deliberate demolition (
As is the case with many castles – especially of the 12th century – there is no record of how much it cost to build Buckton Castle. Based on comparison to
Partly because of the cost and partly because Cheshire was a
During the Anarchy, David I of Scotland gained control of most of northern England, including the parts of Lancashire, prompting the construction of Buckton Castle to serve as a safeguard for Cheshire.[14] After the Anarchy, many castles were slighted to restore England to its state before the conflict, which may explain why Buckton was demolished. Alternatively, it could have been slighted after the Revolt of 1173–74 to punish the earl of Chester for taking part in a war against the king.[15] While it is likely the earls of Chester built the castle, it is possible it could have been built by William de Neville when he held the lordship of Longdendale under the earl between 1181 and 1186, though he may not have had the financial means to do so.[16]
The dearth of artefacts recovered from Buckton Castle and the lack of finely finished stonework indicate that the site was never finished, but the re-cutting of the ditch suggests either an extended period of occupancy or abandonment followed by repairs to the fortifications.[17]
Later history and investigation
An estate survey from 1360 recorded that "there is one ruined castle called Buckeden and of no value"; this is the earliest surviving reference to the castle.
In the 18th century, people began treasure hunting at Buckton Castle. While the hunting was largely unsuccessful, in 1767 one such venture discovered a gold necklace and a silver vessel, though these artefacts have since been lost.[21] This prompted the interest of local antiquarians, several of whom visited in the 18th and 19th centuries, often drawing plans of the castle.[22] Since 1924, the castle has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument,[23] which is intended to protect important archaeological sites from change;[24] this was probably to protect the castle from Buckton Vale Quarry as it expanded.[25] During the Second World War Starfish sites were built as decoys for bombing raids. Nine were built around Manchester, including one close to Buckton Castle. At this time a brick hut was built over part of the castle ditch. The Starfish site went out of use in 1943.[26]
In the 20th century it was suggested that Buckton Castle may have been an Iron Age hillfort, but a study of hillforts in Cheshire and Lancashire found that Buckton was topographically different from these sites and therefore unlikely to have been built in the Iron Age.[27] Excavation in 1998 demonstrated that the site was medieval, with no sign of earlier activity.[2] The archaeologists D. J. Cathcart King and Leslie Alcock suggested that the castle was a ringwork – a type of fortification where earthworks formed an integral part of the defence.[5] This was before excavation established that the first phase of the castle was a curtain wall and the earthworks seen today are the result of the collapse of the structure and accumulation of soil on top. Buckton is now understood to be an enclosure castle, with stone walls forming the key defence.[28]
The Tameside Archaeology Survey began in 1990, carried out by the University of Manchester Archaeology Unit with more than £500,000 of funding from Tameside Council; £300,000 of this was directed towards the excavations at Buckton Castle.[29] A topographical survey and trial excavations were carried out in 1996 and 1998 to record the castle earthworks and examine a possible outer bailey. The latter was revealed to be a 20th-century feature, probably related to nearby mining activity. Illegal digging by unknown parties in 1999 and 2002 necessitated remedial work and test pitting. In 2007, full-scale excavations at Buckton Castle began with the aim of establishing the date and history of the site. Across three seasons – 2007, 2008, and 2010 – trenches were opened across the ditch, the northern entrance, the gap in the circuit of earthworks on the south side, the interior, and the curtain wall.[30]
The University of Manchester Archaeological Unit closed in July 2009, and the Tameside Archaeology Survey, along with the work at Buckton Castle, was transferred to the new Centre for Applied Archaeology at the University of Salford.[31] Brian Grimsditch directed the excavations throughout. More than 60 volunteers were involved in the excavations between 2007 and 2010, including people from the Tameside Archaeological Society, the South Trafford Archaeological Group, the South Manchester Archaeological Research Team, and students from several universities.[32]
Layout
Buckton was a small highland enclosure castle with a 2.8-metre-thick (9 ft) sandstone curtain wall; nothing survives above ground.[33] It is roughly oval and measures 35.6 by 26.2 metres (117 by 86 ft), covering an area of 730 square metres (0.18 acres). The castle is surrounded by a 10-metre-wide (33 ft) ditch apart from the south-west part where the steep slope of the hill makes the ditch unnecessary. When the ditch was dug some of the material was used to raise the interior of the castle by 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in).[34]
Buckton is similar in size to Clitheroe Castle's inner enclosure, which is also oval (31.8 by 26 metres (104 by 85 ft)) and has a 2.6-metre-thick (9 ft) curtain wall. Clitheroe was also built on a rocky peak and the small size of its great tower may be due to its naturally defensible position and location in an economically deprived area.[35][36]
Buckton Castle was entered through a gatehouse in the north-west measuring 9.3 by 7.5 metres (31 by 25 ft). The east side was occupied by the gate passage and the west by a chamber. Though the structure no longer survives above ground, it was probably at least two storeys tall.[37] Constructed in the 12th century, Buckton's gatehouse was the earliest in North West England, and was one of six stone gatehouses in the region that were built in the 12th or 13th century: Buckton, Egremont, Brough, Clitheroe, Carlisle's inner gatehouse, and the Agricola Tower at Chester. They are broadly similar in size, and take the form of a gate passage piercing a single tower with rooms in the floors above. Buckton's gatehouse differs slightly in having the passage offset to one side.[38]
In the 1770s, the antiquarian
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A plan drawn by George Ormerod in 1817
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An aerial Lidar plan of the area west of the castle which is far right centre
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Part of the ditch surrounding the castle
See also
- Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
- List of castles in Greater Manchester
- List of Scheduled Monuments in Greater Manchester
Notes
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Redhead (2007), p. 5
- ^ a b Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 60
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Redhead (2007), p. 7
- ^ a b Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 41–43
- ^ a b King & Alcock (1969), p. 117
- ^ Friar (2003), pp. 185–186
- ^ Nevell & Walker (1998), pp. 48–51
- ^ Booth (1981), p. 92
- ^ Swallow (2016), p. 321
- ^ Eales (2006), p. 23
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 41–44, 85
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 79–80
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 44–47
- ^ a b Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 82–85
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 83–84
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 83
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 81–82
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 87
- ^ Nevell, Redhead & Grimsditch (2008), p. 32
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 87, 93
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 87–90
- ^ a b Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 90–94
- ^ Historic England, "Buckton Castle: a ringwork and site of 17th century beacon 350m north east of Castle Farm (1015131)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 25 October 2016
- ^ Scheduled Monuments, Historic England, retrieved 26 October 2016
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 85
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 95–96
- ^ Forde-Johnston (1962), pp. 11–12
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 53
- ^ Lost castle solves riddle of Buckton Moor, University of Manchester, 21 July 2008, archived from the original on 13 November 2016, retrieved 23 October 2016
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 57–59
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Mitchell (2010), p. 1
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 135
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 47, 55
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), p. 47
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 46–47, 51–52
- ^ Hartley & Newman (2006), p. 15
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 48, 70–71
- ^ Nevell (2012–2013), pp. 258, 261, 278
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 76–79
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 70, 93
- ^ Grimsditch, Nevell & Nevell (2012), pp. 57, 82
Bibliography
- Booth, Paul Howson William (1981), The Financial Administration of the Lordship and County of Chester, 1272–1377, Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-71901337-9
- Eales, Richard (2006), Peveril Castle, London: ISBN 978-1-85074-982-0
- Forde-Johnston, James (1962), "The Iron Age Hillforts of Lancashire and Cheshire", Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 72: 9–46
- Friar, Stephen (2003), A Sutton Companion to Castles, Sutton Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7509-3994-2
- Grimsditch, Brian; Nevell, Michael; Redhead, Norman (September 2007), Buckton Castle: An Archaeological Evaluation of a Medieval Ringwork – an Interim Report, University of Manchester Archaeological Unit
- Grimsditch, Brian; Nevell, Michael; Nevell, Richard (2012), Buckton Castle and the Castles of North West England, University of Salford Archaeological Monographs volume 2 and the Archaeology of Tameside volume 9, Centre for Applied Archaeology, School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, ISBN 978-0-9565947-2-3
- Grimsditch, Brian; Nevell, Michael; Mitchell, Sue (2010), Tameside Archaeological Survey. Annual Report for 2009–10 (PDF), Centre for Applied Archaeology, University of Salford
- Hartley, S; Newman, R (2006), Lancashire Historic Towns Survey Programme: Clitheroe Historic Town Assessment Report, Lancashire County Council
- King, D. J. Cathcart; Alcock, Leslie (1969), "Ringworks of England and Wales", Château Gaillard: Études de castellologie médiévale, 3: 90–127
- Nevell, Michael; Redhead, Norman; Grimsditch, Brian (November 2008), "Buckton Castle", Current Archaeology, XIX (225), Current Publishing: 32–37
- Nevell, Michael; Walker, John (1998), Lands and Lordships in Tameside, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council with the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit, ISBN 1-871324-18-1
- Nevell, Richard (2012–2013), "Castle gatehouses in North West England" (PDF), The Castle Studies Group Journal, 26: 257–281
- Swallow, Rachel (2016), "Cheshire Castles of the Irish Sea Cultural Zone", S2CID 163766715
Further reading
- Swallow, Rachel (2018). "Hilltop castles in a medieval landscape: Beeston and Buckton, Cheshire, England". Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. 28: 271–282.
- Walker, John; Nevell, Michael (1999). Tameside in Transition. Tameside Metropolitan Borough with University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. ISBN 1-871324-24-6.