Buckton Castle was a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
enclosure castle
An enclosure castle is a fortified residence or stronghold, in which defence is facilitated by walls and towers. Such fortifications were usually composed of wood or stone, but there are later examples built of brick.
Features
In enclosure castl ...
near
Carrbrook
Carrbrook is a village in the east of Stalybridge, in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The area still has many seventeenth and eighteenth-century buildings. Much of the late-nineteenth and the early-twentieth-century village was built dur ...
in
Stalybridge
Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 23,731 at the 2011 Census.
Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east of Manchester city centre and no ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
, England. It was surrounded by a stone
curtain wall and a ditch wide by deep. Buckton is one of the earliest stone castles in North West England and only survives as buried remains overgrown with heather and peat. It was most likely built and demolished in the 12th century. The earliest surviving record of the site dates from 1360, by which time it was lying derelict. The few finds retrieved during archaeological investigations indicate that Buckton Castle may not have been completed.
In the 16th century, the site may have been used as a beacon for the
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland, and north Lancashire, under the leadership of Robert Aske. The "most ...
. During the 18th century, the castle was of interest to treasure hunters following rumours that gold and silver had been discovered at Buckton. The site was used as an anti-aircraft decoy site during the Second World War. Between 1996 and 2010, Buckton Castle was investigated by archaeologists as part of the Tameside Archaeology Survey, first by the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit then the University of Salford's Centre for Applied Archaeology. The project involved
community archaeology
Community archaeology is archaeology by the people for the people. The field is also known as public archaeology. There is debate about whether the terms are interchangeable; some believe that community archaeology is but one form of public archa ...
, and more than 60 volunteers took part. The castle, close to the Buckton Vale Quarry, is a
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
Location
Buckton Castle lies above sea level on Buckton Hill, a steep
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
ridge (). 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
Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 23,731 at the 2011 Census.
Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east of Manchester city centre and no ...
is about south-west of the site. To the north and north-east of the castle are areas of moorland with heather and peat. The site may have been chosen to allow the castle's garrison to guard the Tame Valley.
During the Middle Ages, Buckton Castle was at the eastern end of Cheshire. The county shares its western border with Wales. Both the castle and valley were in the medieval
manor of
Tintwistle
Tintwistle is a village and civil parish in the High Peak district of the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England. Historically in Cheshire, according to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,401, reducing marginally to 1,400 ...
. A manor was a division of land administered by a
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
or his representative; in Tintwistle's case, it was part of the larger lordship of
Longdendale
Longdendale is a valley in the Peak District of England, north of Glossop and southwest of Holmfirth. The name means "long wooded valley" and the valley is mostly in the counties of Derbyshire and Greater Manchester.
Geography
The eastern part ...
.
Compared to
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...
and
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, 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. According to the archaeologist
Rachel Swallow,
hilltop castles in the area, which include Buckton, Beeston,
Halton and
Mold
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...
, are "predominantly a symbol of significant offensive and elite personal power in these landscapes".
File:Bodleian Libraries, The Countie Palatine of Chester.jpg, alt=A map showing an area with a coastline at its west end and hills at its east. Buckton Castle is located in the north-east of the county., A late 16th-century map of Cheshire; Buckton Castle lies in the north-east of the county.
File:Buckton Castle (8) (28053449473).jpg, alt=Heather-covered hillslopes in the foreground, with a plain in the background., The view north-west from Buckton Castle. The castle is on a hill above sea level.
History
Construction and use
![Peveril Castle 2015 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Peveril_Castle_2015_03.jpg)
The earliest castles in England typically were constructed from timber, at least when they were first built, as building in stone was more expensive.
Paleoenvironmental
Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...
evidence shows that between the 9th and 11th centuries, the area where Buckton Castle would later be built was cleared of woodland. This left little timber, and may partly explain why stone was used as a building material. It became more common to use stone in 12th-century castles, and Buckton is amongst the earliest masonry castles in North West England.
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 (
slighting
Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...
). Little datable material has been recovered from the site – four
sherd
In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well.
Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...
s of Pennine Gritty Ware broadly date to the late 12th century.
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
Peveril Castle
Peveril Castle (also Castleton Castle or Peak Castle) is a ruined 11th-century castle overlooking the village of Castleton in the English county of Derbyshire. It was the main settlement (or ''caput'') of the feudal barony of William Peverel, kn ...
in Derbyshire, where construction of the
great tower in 1175–1177 cost £184 according to the
Pipe Rolls, it is estimated that the work at Buckton would have cost around £100. This was close to the
median
In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
annual income for a
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
in 1200.
Partly because of the cost and partly because Cheshire was a
palatine county in which the earl had authority over who was permitted to build castles, it is likely that the castle was built by one of the earls of Chester. Compared to other English counties along the Anglo-Welsh border, Cheshire has fewer castles per square kilometre, indicating that the earl may have limited castle building. The construction of the castle may have been prompted by the earls' involvement in
the Anarchy
The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adelin, the only legiti ...
, a civil war during
King Stephen's reign in the middle of the 12th century, or the
Revolt of 1173–74
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
against
Henry II.
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. 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. 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.
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.
Later history and investigation
![Excavations on Buckton Castle July 2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Excavations_on_Buckton_Castle_July_2007.JPG)
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. At the time, the lordship of Longdendale was the property of
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, su ...
, and the castle was derelict. The site of the castle may have been used as a beacon in the 16th century, first during the
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland, and north Lancashire, under the leadership of Robert Aske. The "most ...
of 1536–37, and later in the 1580s when the country was under threat of invasion from Spain, particularly with the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
in 1588. This usage may have been reprised in 1803 when a beacon hut is recorded near
Mossley
Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester.
The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire ...
, a settlement less than a mile west of the castle.
In the 18th century, people began
treasure hunting
Treasure hunter is the physical search for treasure. For example, treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market for antiquities. The practice of treasure ...
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. This prompted the interest of local
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
s, several of whom visited in the 18th and 19th centuries, often drawing plans of the castle. Since 1924, the castle has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, which is intended to protect important archaeological sites from change; this was probably to protect the castle from Buckton Vale Quarry as it expanded. During the Second World War
Starfish site
Starfish sites were large-scale night-time decoys created during the Blitz to simulate burning British cities. The aim was to divert German night bombers from their intended targets so they would drop their ordnance over the countryside. The sites ...
s 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.
In the 20th century it was suggested that Buckton Castle may have been an
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
hillfort
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
, 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. Excavation in 1998 demonstrated that the site was medieval, with no sign of earlier activity. The archaeologists
D. J. Cathcart King and
Leslie Alcock
Leslie Alcock (24 April 1925 – 6 June 2006) was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, and one of the leading archaeologists of Early Medieval Britain. His major excavations included Dinas Powys hill fort in Wales, Cadbury Ca ...
suggested that the castle was a
ringwork
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles without the motte. Defences were usually earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank surrounding the site.
...
– a type of fortification where earthworks formed an integral part of the defence. 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.
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.
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.
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. Brian Grimsditch directed the excavations throughout. More than 60
volunteers
Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...
were involved in the excavations between 2007 and 2010, including people from the
Tameside Archaeological Society, the
South Trafford Archaeological Group
The South Trafford Archaeological Group (STAG) is an archaeological group based in Timperley, Greater Manchester. The group promotes interest in and the study of archaeology and history locally, especially within Trafford but also beyond the border ...
, the
South Manchester Archaeological Research Team, and students from several universities.
Layout
Buckton was a small highland
enclosure castle
An enclosure castle is a fortified residence or stronghold, in which defence is facilitated by walls and towers. Such fortifications were usually composed of wood or stone, but there are later examples built of brick.
Features
In enclosure castl ...
with a sandstone
curtain wall; nothing survives above ground. It is roughly oval and measures , covering an area of . The castle is surrounded by a 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 .
Buckton is similar in size to
Clitheroe Castle
Clitheroe Castle is a ruined early medieval castle in Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. It was the ''caput'' of the Honour of Clitheroe, a vast estate stretching along the western side of the Pennines.
Its earliest history is debated but it is ...
's inner enclosure, which is also oval () and has a 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.
Buckton Castle was entered through a
gatehouse
A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...
in the north-west measuring . 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. 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
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
. 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.
In the 1770s, the antiquarian
Thomas Percival
Thomas Percival (29 September 1740 – 30 August 1804) was an English physician, health reformer, ethicist and author who wrote an early code of medical ethics. He drew up a pamphlet with the code in 1794 and wrote an expanded version in 18 ...
recorded a
well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
within the castle, close to the south curtain, and walls of buildings inside the castle still standing to a height of . A plan created by the Saddleworth Geological Society in 1842 recorded a ruined structure within the castle's south-east area in addition to the well Percival noted. Trenches in the castle's interior did not reveal the structures on the plans from the 18th and 19th centuries, although the discovery of a
posthole
In archaeology a posthole or post-hole is a cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone. They are usually much deeper than they are wide; however, truncation may not make this apparent. Although the remains of the timber may survive, most p ...
indicates there was activity in this area. The gap in the southern part of the curtain wall – not evident in the 1842 plan by the Saddleworth Geological Society – was probably created in the 19th century. There is a feature resembling a spoil heap, consisting of pieces of sandstone. This may have been a by-product from the construction of the castle. Nothing remains of Buckton Castle above ground today, and until the late 20th century, vegetation obscured the existence of a stone structure.
File:Plan of Buckton Castle by George Ormerod.JPG, alt=A roughly line drawing showing a roughly circular bank and ditch, with an entrance in the north-west part of the circuit., A plan drawn by George Ormerod in 1817
File:Buckton Castle landscape.tif, alt=A relief plan showing the land sloping westwards away from the hill which Buckton Castle sits on, and residential areas on lower land., An aerial Lidar
Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
plan of the area west of the castle which is far right centre
File:Buckton Castle defensive ditch.jpg, alt=A ditch with heather on the slopes., Part of the ditch surrounding the castle
See also
*
Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 10 ...
*
List of castles in Greater Manchester
There are nine castles in Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. They consist of four motte-and-baileys, three fortified manor houses, an enclosure castle, and a possible shell keep. A motte-and-bailey castle has tw ...
*
List of Scheduled Monuments in Greater Manchester
Notes
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
{{commons category, Buckton Castle
Buckton Castle Rendered Animation from Leica c10 laser scanned data (YouTube)
Castles in Greater Manchester
Enclosure castles
Buildings and structures in Tameside
Scheduled monuments in Greater Manchester
Archaeological sites in Greater Manchester