CHARTLEY CASTLE

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Primarily a motte and double bailey castle which was altered in the early 13th century to form an enclosure castle. The motte is at the western end of the castle and although on a naturally high point it has been artificially raised. A stone keep and curtain walls with projecting towers were later added to the earthworks. The site was owned by the Earls of Chester from the end of the 11th century and the motte and baileys date from this time. Re-building in stone was underway in 1223 but the castle was abandoned by 1485, and was described by Leland as a ruin in 1545.

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[SK01032849] CHARTLEY CASTLE [G.T.] (Remains of) (1)

In 1192 the custody and repairs of Chartley Castle devolved upon the Crown. (2)

The original erection was a mound, 60 feet in diameter with a ditch 80-100 feet wide, the bottom of which varies 23-42 feet below the present top of the mound.
Ranulph built his castle on this mound in the first quarter of the 13th century.
To the east of the mound are inner and outer courts, the inner one being enclosed by a curtain wall which had five towers distributed along the south and east sides.

The outer court is completely ditched, but has an entrance to the south-east, where the ditch is filled-in. Th approach to the castle appears to have been from this direction, and there was probably a bridge at this point. The complex is enclosed by a bank which runs on the outer edges of the various ditches. (See Scrivener's plan and section which is a survey by him based on the OS plan). (3)

Chartley Castle - scheduled. (4)

Chartley Castle occupies the top of a natural hill. The plan and sections in Authy.3 are correct.

In its earliest stage it consisted of a Norman motte (as described in Authy.3) with an inner and outer bailey to its east. That the motte and bailey are contemporary is shown by the way that together they occupy the whole hill-top and by the weakness of the defences of the motte on the east, which in the absence of the baileys would have been the easily most accessible side. The erathworks are in good condition.

In the 13th century the motte and inner bailey were converted into a stone castle, a shell keep being built upon the motte and the bailey strengthened by a curtain wall with semi-drum towers. The masonry was of ashlar with a rubble core.

The shell keep was 10.5m in diameter (internally) and its wall, (still standing to a height of 0.3m) was 3.5m thick. (It is now much restored).

The defences added to the bailey are still fairly well preserved along the south side: towers 1 and 2 (numbering as in plan, Authy.3) still stand two stages high, and the curtain wall, although fragmentary, can still be traced throughout. On the eastern side are the remains of the bases of three towers, but except for a fragment of No.3, they do not rise above the level of the interior of the bailey. Only the lowest courses remain of the curtain wall between Nos.4 and 5. The entrance from the outer bailey was probably between towers 3 and 4, but no trace of it remains. On the north side, apart from the footings of the weast of the curtain, there is no trace of the stone castle.

Across the south-east corner of the ditch of the outer bailey is a causeway from which a road, `A' (now a shallow depression under pasture), led down to the Stafford - Uttoxeter road. (5)

Reports of field surveys F2-F4 unavailable. (6-8)

Ruined. Remains of early Cl3 building within extensive earth-works The enclosure is quadrangular with the remains of the keep at 1 end on a motte. At the lower end are 2 massive circular towers with walls about 12 feet thick and filth slit openings. The site is so overgrown that a careful examination is impossible. Mary Queen of Scots-imprisoned here Jan-Sept, 1586. A.M. (9)

SOURCE TEXT

(1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1955

(2) General reference

Eyton RW. 1881. Collections for a History of Staffordshire 2, 21

( 3) The North Staffordshire Field Club transactions

(A Scrivener) 39, 1904-5 Page(s)143-9

( 4) General reference

Ancient Monuments in England and Wales 1953 90

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 VJB 18-Feb-1958

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F2 CFW 9-Jul-1958

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

F3 TPW 1-Nov-1961

( 8) Field Investigators Comments

F4 ASP 29-Jan-1975

(9) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

District of Stafford, 15-Jan-1968.

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