Stockport Castle was a

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the so ...

castle in

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, Cheshire. The castle was in the medieval town, overlooking a ford over the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

. It was first documented in 1173, but the next mention of it is in 1535 when it was in ruins. What remained of the castle was demolished in 1775.

Location

Stockport Castle was an urban castle in the town of Stockport. The medieval town was on the south side of a valley at the confluence of the rivers

Goyt The River Goyt is a tributary of the River Mersey in North West England. Etymology The name ''Goyt'' may be derived from the Middle English ''gote'', meaning "a watercourse, a stream". Derivation from the Welsh ''gwyth'' meaning "vein" has bee ...

and

Tame Tame may refer to: *Taming, the act of training wild animals *River Tame, Greater Manchester *River Tame, West Midlands and the Tame Valley *Tame, Arauca, a Colombian town and municipality * "Tame" (song), a song by the Pixies from their 1989 alb ...

, where they form the

. The site of the castle is a sandstone spur, overlooking a ford (). The castle was flanked by cliffs or steep slopes on its north, south, and west sides.

History

The first mention of Stockport Castle comes from 1173, when Geoffrey de Costentyn held it against Henry II during the barons' rebellion of 1173–1174. There is a local tradition that Geoffrey de Constentyn was the son of Henry II,

Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany Geoffrey II ( br, Jafrez; , xno, Geoffroy; 23 September 1158 – 19 August 1186) was Duke of Brittany and 3rd Earl of Richmond between 1181 and 1186, through his marriage to Constance, Duchess of Brittany. Geoffrey was the fourth of five sons ...

; in fact, Geoffrey de Constentyn was a local lord who not only owned the manor of Stockport, but land in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The bailey would originally have been defended by a wooden

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

and earthworks; these were replaced by stone walls at the beginning of the 13th century. Two fragments of the wall survive. Dent suggests that the castle began to decline in the 14th century when the Warren family became

Lords 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 seigno ...

of Stockport; Stockport was not the only manor that the family owned, and they favoured the manor of

Poynton Poynton is a town in Cheshire, England, on the easternmost fringe of the Cheshire Plain, south-east of Manchester, north of Macclesfield and south of Stockport. Poynton has formed part of the Cheshire East unitary authority since the ab ...

over that of Stockport. The castle falling out of use mirrors a trend with the other castles in the

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 ...

area; by the 13th century, apart from

Dunham Castle Dunham Castle is an early medieval castle in Dunham Massey, Greater Manchester, England (). History The castle is first referred to in 1173, in a document stating Hamo de Masci held the castles of Dunham and Ullerwood Castle, Ullerwood. Documen ...

, there was no indication of activity in

castles in Greater Manchester There are nine castles in Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England, 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-bai ...

. According to

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 ...

John Leland, the castle lay in ruins by 1535. At this stage, the

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

was still present and a market was held in the castle's bailey. The castle grounds had been divided and rented out by the Lord of the Manor. The ruins were levelled in 1775 by Sir George Warren, the lord of the manor, and a cotton mill built on the site. In 1974, excavations of the motte were carried out to establish how long the castle had been occupied.

Layout

A motte-and-bailey castle was a common type of fortification in medieval England. It consisted of a usually artificial mound surmounted by a tower or

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

, with a large defended enclosed area next to the mound and was usually used for storage and barracks. Stockport Castle's motte was where Castle Yard is today, although it was previously called Castle Hill, influencing the name of the area. The bailey was situated south-east of the motte. The castle was probably similar in size and shape to castles such as Launceston in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

. The keep surmounting the motte was irregularly shaped, and according to plans drawn in 1775 by the Reverend John Watson, a local antiquarian, measured . No trace of the keep remains from the levelling of the area in 1775 and 1853.

References

Bibliography * * * * {{refend Castles in Cheshire Buildings and structures in Stockport Buildings and structures demolished in 1775

Location

History

Layout

See also

References