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castle in Lancashire, England, UK
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Clitheroe Castle is a ruined early medieval castle in Clitheroe in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It was the caput of the Honour of Clitheroe, a vast estate stretching along the western side of the Pennines.
Its earliest history is debated but it is thought to be of Norman origin, probably built in the twelfth century. Property of the de Lacy family, the honour later merged with the earldom and then Duchy of Lancaster. Given to George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle in 1660, the castle site remained in private ownership until 1920, when it was sold to the people of Clitheroe to create a war memorial. Today the buildings on the site are the home of Clitheroe Castle Museum.
The keep is the second smallest surviving stone-built keep in England. The castle was listed as a Scheduled Monument on 10 April 1915 (and later, under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 law). It was Grade I listed on 19 May 1950.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Anglo-Saxon hundred of Blackburnshire was part of a fief given to Roger de Poitou, and the Domesday Book of 1086 shows he had given it to Roger de Busli and Albert de Gresle. Clitheroe is not mentioned by name, and it is assumed that Blackburn had previously been the administrative centre. However some time during the reign of William Rufus, Poitou gave Blackburnshire and the Bowland area, north of the River Ribble (under Craven in the Domesday Book) to the Baron of Pontefract, Robert de Lacy. When de Poitou lost his English holdings in 1102, Henry I not only allowed de Lacy to keep these lands, but added to them with the vills of Chipping, Aighton and Dutton. Clitheroe became the centre of this new honour.
The valley of the River Ribble has formed a significant transport route for a long time. A Roman road runs up it, passing just south of the castle site. The steep limestone outcrop which rises 39 metres (128 ft) above the surrounding land is strategically located to effectively bar the pass, and provides extensive views over the surrounding area.
A 14th-century document called Historia Laceiorum attributed construction of the castle to Robert de Lacy (died 1193), the grandson of the first Robert de Lacy. Although it is generally accepted that he built the keep, it is thought that some form of fortification already existed.
Some form of wooden fortress may have existed on the site before the Norman conquest. A reference to the "castellatu Rogerii pictaviensis" in the Domesday Book entry for nearby Barnoldswick, has been used to argue that it was first built before 1086 by Roger the Poitevin. Others have countered that the passage more likely refers to Lancaster Castle however.
It is thought that there was a castle at Clitheroe in 1102, as Robert de Lacy granted lands formerly the property of Orme le Engleis, within the baillie and below, to Ralph le Rous. A charter from 1122 also mentions the castle's chapel. In the summer of 1138, a Scottish force under William fitz Duncan harried the area, defeating an English force at the Battle of Clitheroe. Although the castle is not mentioned in the known accounts of the battle, it may have been the reason for the battle's location.
New construction work was carried out in the late 12th century by Robert de Lacy (died 1193). This Robert died without an heir, and his lands passed to his cousin, and then to her grandson Roger, the constable of Chester. He changed his surname to de Lacy and his descendants would also be the Earls of Lincoln (from 1232).
The castle was garrisoned due to the rebellion of Richard I's brother, Prince John, in the 1190s. During the early 14th century repairs were carried out to buildings within the castle and a new gate was built. When Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln died in London in 1311, ownership of his properties passed to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster who had been married to his daughter and heiress Alice. When Sir Adam Banastre led a rebellion against the earl in 1315, Clitheroe was amongst the castles raided for weapons. Lancaster's property was transferred to the crown (escheated) following his attainder and death in 1322; his brother Henry was later granted his lands, which subsequently became part of the Duchy of Lancaster.
In the 15th century, additional repairs were undertaken and a new chamber was built in 1425. During the Wars of the Roses, Edward IV ordered £200 be spent on repairs to the castle, but afterwards it seems to have fallen into disrepair. Duchy records for the honour show that the castle had a constable and a porter in the 1480s. A survey in 1602 described the castle as very ruinous, warning that buildings were very likely to fall down, with another in 1608 stating that parts of the decayed buildings had actually collapsed.
In 1644, during the Civil War, Prince Rupert left a garrison at the castle on his way to relieve the parliamentarian siege of York. They repaired the main gateway and stocked the castle with provisions, only to abandon it following the royalist loss at the Battle of Marston Moor. When the Lancashire militia was ordered to disband in 1649, they refused, occupying the castle for a brief period in a dispute over unpaid wages. The same year Clitheroe was among a number of castles that parliament decided should be 'slighted' to prevent further use, although it is uncertain what demolition work actually resulted. The 19th-century conservation and buttressing of the keep destroyed parts of the original fabric which could have preserved evidence of the slighting. The castle's materials, including timbers, stone, and slate from the chapel roof, were valued for removal.
In 1660 the castle and its honour were given as a reward to the first Duke of Albemarle by Charles II for helping him to regain the crown. From the late 17th century, the castle became the residence of the steward of the honour. Occupants of the castle include John Barcroft of Colne (who died there in 1782).
Ownership of the castle subsequently passed down through the family to the Dukes of Buccleuch. A plan of the castle dated 1723 is thought to have been created when a new house was built for the steward. However it seems that around this time much of the remaining curtain wall was demolished, with garden terraces created. The castle continued to operate as the administrative centre for Blackburnshire until 1822 when the town hall in Church Street was built.
In 1848, with the ruined keep in danger of collapse, it was decided to undertake a series of repairs. At least £221 was spent on the work which included re-building the staircase tower, considerable work to the eastern corner, refacing areas of the interior and exterior with Chatburn limestone, and the installation of a series of buttresses on the southwest and southeast walls.
Before he died in 1878 Dixon Robinson resided at the castle for over 40 years as Steward of the Honour of Clitheroe.
The castle site was purchased by public subscription by the then borough council from Lord Montagu of Beaulieu for £9,500 in November 1920, to create a memorial to the 260 soldiers from the town who died in the First World War.
In the late 1980s the southeast elevation of the keep underwent substantial preservation work. As part of a large redevelopment of the museum, 2008 saw further restoration work to the keep and the first archaeological survey of the site was completed, including test digs.
The Historic England scheduled monument record classifies Clitheroe as an enclosure castle, the principal defence being the wall surrounding the site. It was essentially a motte-and-bailey layout, with a natural outcrop utilised as the motte. The keep is the second smallest surviving stone-built keep in England. It is thought that, as the keep was so small, other essential buildings such as the great hall may have been located on the site where the education suite now stands. A 1602 survey mentions Mr Auditor's chamber, the hall and buttery, and there would likely also have been stables and lodgings for any stationed soldiers. The southwest corner of the site next to the Steward's house was formerly the kitchen gardens. The medieval castle keep and some of the curtain wall remain above ground, although the medieval buildings in the bailey have not survived. However, there are sub-surface remains of the castle gateway and other buildings. A document from 1304 mentions ditches and moats, thought to be a distance from the castle at a lower level, but these have since been filled in. The footpath that ascends the castle mound to the keep, and the western access road are believed to be later additions.
The keep is a square tower with flat pilasters at the corners giving the appearance of corner towers, with the walls being 8.75 feet (2.7 m) wide at the base. The ground floor is thought to have been accessed from above via a trapdoor. There are recessed arrowslits in the middle of the walls on three sides, except the northwest. Two of these have been converted into entrances, with the other, on the southwest side, filled-in. The main entrance to the keep was on the first floor on the northwest side, accessed by an external staircase. Next to this, in the western corner tower, is the lower entry to a spiral staircase, which today rises to a height of 46 feet (14.0 m) from the ground, somewhat higher than the other surviving walls. It is thought that the keep would have had a parapet with at least one turret above the staircase. The first floor also had another door in the southwest wall with recessed arrowslits in the other walls. The doorway may have led to the ramparts of the adjacent curtain wall. What today appears to be another doorway next to this, leading by a right-angled passage into the keep, was actually a barrel vaulted mural chamber, which seems to have had an arrowslit in the wall at this end, now breached. This chamber may have been a garderobe, but this is debated. The walls above show no signs of any wall openings even to the staircase. The re-building work may have removed any evidence of a doorway to what was possibly a second floor of sleeping accommodation, or the walls may have concealed a pitched roof, similar to the keep at Peveril. There is also no evidence of fireplace openings in any part of the keep. The repairs made during the restoration work used limestone from quarries at the nearby village of Chatburn, making the additions identifiable.
The first-floor arrow loop on the southeast side has today widened, most likely the result of natural decay. There is an ancient local legend that the Devil once gathered rocks in an apron, and threw a boulder aimed at the castle, from a place on Pendle Hill called Apronful. However the apron broke, dropping a pile of stones and causing the shot to land near the church in Pendleton. The guidebook to the castle relates this local tale, "they always said that the hole in the side of the keep was made by Cromwell in the Civil War. It's only a story but they say that he attacked the castle and fired at it with a cannon from the top of Pendle Hill – it must have been a good cannon for the time to reach that far!"
It is thought the gatehouse tower stood approximately at the site of the stone gate piers on the drive up to the museum. A tall embattled wall, it is believed, ran round the top of the hill, turning behind the steward's house, and then behind the steward's gallery and around the keep. A 16th-century sketch shows a four-sided, two-storey gatehouse with a Norman round-headed doorway, the door including a wicket gate; a small part may be preserved in the wall to the east. Possibly similar the one at Tickhill, the upper floor may have served as a lodging for the castle porter who acted as the jailer. To the west, the remains of the curtain wall climb the slope, connecting to the wall at the top. It has been suggested that the 6 foot (1.8 m) wide wall that surrounds the keep on three sides may represent an earlier construction phase than the keep itself. It may have been a shell keep containing a number of lean-to buildings, with the southern section later demolished and the present keep built inside. Like the keep this section of wall was re-built in the mid-19th century, with the work distinguishable from the original, the north-western exterior face being best preserved. A section of western curtain wall survives next to the well, now separated from the other walls by the stables and court house buildings. The bailey is thought to have been divided into an inner and outer section, with a second gatehouse and/or defensive ditch to control the entry, of which no trace survives. The garden terraces that were created in the mid-18th century cut up much of the site, making it difficult to identify the castle's limits.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Clitheroe Castle”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.