Hallaton Castle was situated to the west of the village of
Hallaton
Hallaton is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 523, which had increased to 594 at the 2011 census.
History and description
The village' ...
, which lies some 20 km to the south-east of the city of
Leicester (). It seems likely that the castle formed the administrative centre of an estate owned by
Geoffrey Alselin
''Geoffrey Alselin'' was an Anglo-Norman, who at some time after the Norman conquest of England received Elvaston, Derbyshire and Laxton, Nottinghamshire.
Alselin began the construction of the motte-and-bailey castle that stood at Laxton, Nottingh ...
, which is described in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
, pinpointing the construction of the castle happening before 1086 but after 1066.
This was an interesting
motte and bailey castle with an additional rectangular enclosure now surviving as an earthwork, high, and in circumference, on which stood the
keep, occupying, with the
outworks, about of ground.
The earthworks only are present today.
References
*Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, ''The David & Charles Book of Castles'', Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1980.
Castles in Leicestershire
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