Mow Cop Castle is a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

Mow Cop Mow Cop is a village split between Cheshire and Staffordshire, and therefore divided between the North West England, North West and West Midlands (region), West Midlands regions of England. It is south of Manchester and north of Stoke-on-Trent ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Odd Rode Odd Rode is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It borders the Staffordshire parish of Kidsgrove, and includes the settlements of: * Scholar Green * ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The ridge, upon which the castle sits, forms the boundary between the counties of Cheshire and Staffordshire, the dioceses of Chester and Lichfield and the ecclesiastical provinces of Canterbury and York.

History

Traces of a prehistoric camp have been found here. In 1754, Randle Wilbraham of nearby

Rode Hall Rode Hall, a Georgian country house, is the seat of the Wilbraham family, members of the landed gentry in the parish of Odd Rode, Cheshire, England. The estate, with the original timber-framed manor house, was purchased by the Wilbrahams fro ...

built an elaborate summerhouse looking like a medieval fortress and round tower. The area around the castle was nationally famous for the quarrying of high-quality millstones ('

querns Quern-stones are stone tools for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a saddle quern, while the upper mobile stone is called a muller, rubber or handstone. The ...

') for use in water mills. Excavations at Mow Cop have found querns dating back to the

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 ...

. The Castle was given to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1937. The same year over ten thousand Methodists met on the hill to commemorate the first

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

camp meeting there. Though visitors were originally allowed inside the folly the area surrounding it has been fenced off due to several suicide attempts and one suicide on the ledge. On the turn of the millennium in the year 2000 a large fire was lit beside the folly as part of a network of communicating beacons across the country. Mow Cop and its folly are central images in

Alan Garner Alan Garner (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. Much of his work is rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native count ...

's novel ''

Red Shift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in fr ...

''.

References

External links

History of Mow Cop
{{coord, 53.1130, -2.2143, type:landmark_region:GB-STS, display=title National Trust properties in Cheshire Tourist attractions in Cheshire Tourist attractions of the Peak District Folly castles in England Ruins in Cheshire Folly buildings in England Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire

History

See also

References

External links