CLITHEROE CASTLE

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The upstanding and buried remains of Clitheroe Castle, an enclosure castle constructed during the late 11th to early 12th centuries. The surviving medieval parts of the castle include the stone keep and the adjacent curtain wall which surrounds the keep on all sides except the south. A bailey lies to the south of the keep and was originally surrounded by a curtain wall. The keep is at present (1997) roofless and floorless and was originally a three storied building. Entrance to the bailey was originally through a gatehouse. This gatehouse has now been demolished but its remains survive as a buried feature. Clitheroe Castle is a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building.

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[SD 7424 4169] CLITHEROE CASTLE [GT] (Rems of). (1)

Clitheroe Castle. A motte (sic) and bailey structure situated on an isolated limestone crag. It is not an earthwork in the accepted sense, for no soil was available on the crag, but stone was abundant. The remains consist of a walled keep north of the bailey, the wall being 12ft. high internally and 6 ft. thick and was probably the original defence. The keep is 20 ft. square internally with walls 10 ft thick.
Plan AO/55/115/3.
The castle is mentioned in a grant of 1102. Print showing the castle in 1753. AO/55/213/4. Scheduled. (2-5)

Nothing identifiable as the remains of earthworks exists in the ornamental grounds surrounding the castle mound. The keep is in a fair state of repair. See GP AO/61/166/7 for southern aspect of the keep. (6)

Clitheroe Castle. Grade I. A castle noted in Domesday Book. Consists principally of a small C12 square tower keep with flat corner turrets, one of which contains a staircase. Entrance, originally into the 2nd storey, is now by breaches into the ground storey. All floors appear to have been of wood. The keep is advantageously placed on a steep crag. The inner bailey must have been to the S and fragments of ancient walls and masonry are to be seen in the park and incorporated into buildings, stables and offices (qv). (7)

SD 742 416. Clitheroe Castle. Scheduled No LA/4. (8)

Additional references. (9-10)

Listed by Cathcart King. (11)

The castle, formerly a possession of the Lascy family of Pontefract, passed to the House of Lancaster in 1311, and thence to the Crown in 1399. (12)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1955

( 2) edited by William Farrer and J Brownbill, M.A. 1908 The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster, volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)523

( 3) Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society

1929 Page(s)249-53

( 4) Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society

19, 1901 Page(s)48-53

( 5) Scheduled Monument Notification

Ministry of Works 1958 Ancient Monuments of England and Wales p 61a

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 RWE 26-Sep-1961

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

Ribble Valley, 30 September 1976

( 8) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage SAM List Lancashire March 1994 p 13

( 9) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage Schedule Entry 08/04/1997

( 10) English Heritage Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England

Lancashire Part 25

(11) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

1 - 1983 Page(s)245

(12) R Allen Brown, H M Colvin and A J Taylor 1963 The history of the King's Works, volume 2 : the Middle Ages

Page(s)614

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CASTLE GROUNDS
CLITHEROE

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Gardens to Castle House, a possible 18th century house, incorporating the remains of Clitheroe Castle. The gardens include terraces which were laid ou...

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