Monument record 1733/1/1 - Beeston Castle - Inner Bailey

<1> Chester Archaeological Society, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, Ridgway M H & Cathcart King D J 1959 46/1-23 (Journal/Periodical). SCH1595.

Inner Bailey of Beeston Castle. Occupies the summit of the hill and is surrounded by a rock-cut ditch 10.6m wide by 9m deep. The walls have five half-round towers, two of which are joined as a gatehouse. Entrance into the inner bailey was over a causeway leading to a drawbridge. The entrance was strongly defended by the drawbridge, converging loopholes a pair of doors behind. The interior of the bailey is a rough irregular area, with outcrops of stone. Except for the inward projections of the towers, the only internal features are a well by the east side of the gatehouse and a large rectangular depression - the foundations for a large building, at the north end of the enclosure.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 5/8 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Listing Building Description: Walls, towers and gatehouse of the Inner (1.3.67) Bailey at Beeston Castle. GV I Walls, gatehouse and towers of inner bailey. C1220 altered late C13/early C14. Built by Ranulf de Blundeville, 7th Earl of Chester. Crudely coursed red sandstone. Roughly rectangular enclosure of which approximately half is now demolished. Entrance front: central gateway with D-shaped towers with lateral arrow slits and central pointed gate-arch with rebate. The left-hand turret has the voussoirs of a blocked pointed arch to the lower wall. To the left is curtain walling with the lower courses of a further D-shaped tower. To the right is a similar stretch of walling roughly repaired with rubble at its centre with a D-shaped tower slightly to the left of the right hand corner. The right hand (eastern) wall has a similar D-shaped tower to the centre of the wall.

On the death of Ranulf de Blundeville's nephew the castle passed to the Crown. In the late C13 and early C14 Edward I carried out modernising alterations including raising the height of the inner bailey walls and crenellating them. By the late C16 Leland described the castle as "shattered and ruinous". In 1643 it was partially repaired and occupied by parliamentary troops and taken by Royalist forces in the same year. It was partially demolished in 1646 to prevent its repeated use as a stronghold. Archaeological evidence of Bronze and Iron age settlements on the site has been found.

<3> Chester Archaeological Society, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, Hough P R 1978 Vol 61, p.1-23 (Journal/Periodical). SCH1595.

Excavations held from 1975 - 1977 cleared ditch around causeway which consists of stone wall 4.5m wide, 10m long and c 4.5m above ditch bottom. Irregular rock cut ditch varies in width c 10-15m. To the south of causeway natural rock slopes away steeply, but modified by accumulation of deposits, including debris from iron smithing. The causeway and drawbridge replaced wooden bridge. Chamberlain's Accounts suggest this took place in 1303 - 1304. In drawbridge gap are demolition layers of Civil War 1643 - 1646, though deposits on east side suggest much of wall face had collapsed sometime before Civil War demolition. Civil War finds include pottery vessels, clay pipes, musket balls and animal bones. Subsequent layers in ditch suggest a gradual build-up of deposits through natural erosion and soil development. (See also sources 4 and 5)

<4> County Historic Environment Record, 1973-1985, Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin, Vol 5, p.14-18 Hough P R & Davey P J 1977 (Journal/Periodical). SCH565.

<5> Ellis P (ed), 1993, Beeston Castle, Cheshire. Excavations by Laurence Keen and Peter Hough, 1968-85 (Book). SCH4335.

<6> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 23641 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Scheduled description for Beeston Castle:- Strategically situated on Beeston Crag overlooking the Cheshire Plain and a number of ancient routeways. Construction of the castle commenced in 1226 for Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and the monument includes both upstanding and buried remains of Ranulph's castle and later medieval and post-medieval modifications; together with buried remains indicating prehistoric and Roman activity on Beeston Crag. The castle remains include a sandstone-built outer gatehouse and outer enclosure wall which have one rectangular and nine D-shaped towers attached to them. The enclosure wall follows the strongest, most easily defended, line of the hill-slope around the crag. Outside the wall, to left and right of the gatehouse, are lengths of outer ditch originally up to 3m deep and 5m wide; these provided the additional defence required at the main entrance. The original line of the old road into the castle remains faintly discernible in places and approaches from the north east. Enclosed within the outer defences is a large outer bailey containing a well, extensive quarries, and a relatively flat area where armies in transit could be accommodated in a temporary encampment. Surrounding two sides of the crag's summit is a rock-cut inner ditch up to 10.5m wide by 9m deep originally spanned by a timber bridge supported on a central pillar of rock, and latterly by a stone ramp. This ramp, part of which still exists along with remains of the original rock pillar, led to the gatehouse of the inner bailey where there is a central passage between two D-shaped towers. The gatehouse has a single ground floor chamber in each tower and a single chamber on the upper floor extending across the central passage. The wall of the inner bailey exhibits the remains of a further three D-shaped towers overlooking the ditch on the southern and eastern sides. Elsewhere the wall runs along the edge of a sheer precipice. On the western side the wall has been destroyed at a point known as Pulpit Rock, where the rock juts out above a sheer drop. Within the inner bailey is a well 124m deep, one of the deepest castle wells in the country. The castle was unfinished at Ranulph's death in 1232, and still incomplete at the death of his successor, John, in 1237. Most of the defences had been completed but there were no permanent living quarters other than chambers within the gatehouses and some of the towers. After John's death the castle passed to Henry III and was used as a base to assemble troops and supplies for his campaigns in Wales. The castle remained simply a fortified enclosure with a small permanent garrison accommodated in timber buildings in the outer bailey. In 1254 Henry gave Beeston to his son Edward, later Edward I. After Edward's conquest of Wales documentary sources indicate Beeston was strengthened in 1303-4 by the repair of three towers and the construction of a stone ramp for access into the inner bailey. During the 14th century the castle was kept in good repair but later fell into decline, and by the 16th century the Crown had no further use for it. It was acquired by Sir Hugh Beeston and occupied by some members of his family. In February 1643 the castle was seized on orders of Sir William Brereton, commander of Parliamentarian forces in Cheshire. Breaches in the wall were repaired with mud-walling, the well in the outer ward was cleaned, a few rooms erected' and the castle garrisoned. A square tower adjacent to the outer gatehouse is thought to date to this activity. On December 13th 1643 Royalist troops captured the castle by scaling the precipitous cliffs on the north side. Between November 1644 and November 1645 Brereton's troops laid siege to the castle, during which time they dug a trench round the foot of the hill and built a fortified position or 'mount', capable of holding a hundred men, opposite the outer gatehouse. On November 15th 1645 the Royalist garrison surrendered. At the end of the Civil War orders were given for the castle defences to be destroyed. Between 1703-22 a George Walley was living in the outer gatehouse. Ownership then passed to Sir Thomas Mostyn. The hill was let for grazing and quarrying, and the outer gatehouse was demolished to give better access to the quarries. In 1840 the Beeston Estate was purchased by Lord Tollemache and although stone continued to be quarried the remains of the castle began to be appreciated as a picturesque ruin. Some repairs were carried out in 1846 and the present gatehouse, or Lodge, was built as an entrance. The castle was taken into the guardianship of the Ministry of Works in 1959. The walls, towers, and gatehouses of the inner and outer bailey are Listed Buildings Grade I; the Lodge is a Listed Building Grade II. Limited excavation at the outer gateway between 1978-81 revealed prehistoric rampart defences built of stone and timber with at least three ditch cuts and a counterscarp bank. These features are thought to indicate the presence of a late prehistoric hillfort built on the crag around the ninth century BC. The outer gatehouse and outer wall of Ranulph's castle were constructed on the prehistoric rampart and consequently obliterate much of the earlier defences. In 1978 a Late Bronze Age socketed axe head was found in the outer bailey. Excavation of a small area within the outer bailey in 1980-1 produced six more bronze implements; one dated to the ninth or eighth centuries BC. Other finds included clay moulds and crucibles used in bronze working, prehistoric pottery, flint tools, fragments of very course pottery salt holders, and structural evidence of at least three phases of postholes representing a sequence of building phases dating between c.660 and 330 BC. Limited excavation on the Lower Green outside the outer walls produced post-medieval, medieval and Romano-British pottery from the upper levels. Below these was a cobbled surface interpreted as either an agricultural or domestic yard, or a road surface. The Lodge, its associated buildings, and the 19th century estate wall around the base of Beeston Crag are excluded from the scheduling; also excluded are all English Heritage fixtures and fittings including signs, bases for benches and seats, and the modern bridge giving access into the inner bailey but the ground beneath all these features is also included.

<7> MAP Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, 2007, Beeston Castle, Tarporley, Cheshire (Client Report). SCH5007.

<8> Cheshire Historic Environment Record, 1990-1992, MPP Scoring Form, JCAS Vol 61, 1978, p.1-23, P.D. Hough (Unpublished Document). SCH2222.

Additional note included with MPP Scoring Form:- Original cutting of inner ditch involved systematic quarrying of thousands of tonnes of sandstone using wedges, chisels and hammers. Bands of diagonal chisel marks, still apparent low down on the north side of the ditch indicate that where the rock was suitable, care and efforet was taken to excavate the sandstone in regular blocks for use in constructing the castle. Several nets of wedge holes survive in the rock. Much of the rock which was extracted from the ditch must have been in the form of irregular blocks and sandstone brash and was probably used as wall core material or crushed and mixed with lime to make mortar. To the west of the causeway several very large irregular rocks restinng on a rock cut ledge had been detached but left because they were not worth the effort involved in raising them.

<9> Higham N J, 1984-9, Professor Nick Higham's Aerial Photographs, 1986/8/45-59 (odd) (Aerial Photograph). SCH7659.