Castleton’s town defences were a ditch and bank, probably topped by a timber palisade, that ran around the west, north and east sides of the settlement. Constructed in the early 1190s, they defended the newly reorganised borough. In the 21st century, around 305 metres (1004 ft) of the circuit still survives.
History
Castleton was a settlement created alongside Peveril Castle, at the west end of the Hope Valley, a natural line of communication which had extra strategic importance due to valuable mineral resources in the area, particularly lead. Under the Anglo-Saxons, the settlement of Hope had been the main administrative centre, and a small castle – Hope Motte – had been built there to control it.
William Peverel, a Norman lord who had arrived in England with William the Conqueror in 1066, founded the much larger Peveril Castle, 2 km (1.2 mi) to the west and closer to the entrance of the valley. He built a new lordship, the Honour of Peverel, across the region, using Peveril Castle as his caput – the administrative centre of his wider estates. The adjacent settlement of Castleton benefited from the castle’s new status and began to grow in size, eclipsing the older settlement of Hope.
By 1189, the Crown had taken Peveril and Castleton away from the Peveril family. Soon after Richard I inherited the throne, he granted the lordship to his brother John. While Richard was on crusade, John rebelled and on his return Richard confiscated the lands.
Around this time, Castleton became a borough – the first mention of its new status was in 1196. The streets were reorganised in a grid design, a new market place created, and burgage plots laid out. A defensive bank and ditch were constructed around the outside of the new town, reaching from the crags on which the castle stood, around to the river that defended the western side of the town.
Architecture
The original line of the defences followed line of the river around the north and west sides of Castleton, cutting across more open ground to the east, with Peveril Castle protecting the southern edge. It formed a bank and ditch, presumably with a timber palisade.
In the 21st century, the bank is 12-metres (39 ft) wide and the ditch an additional 12 metres (39 ft) in width. Around 200 metres (660 ft) remains intact on the south-east of Castleton, and another 105 metres (344 ft) along the north-west, where the ditch is now occupied by a mill stream. These earthworks are protected under UK law as Scheduled Monuments.
Bibliography
- Creighton, Oliver. (2002) Castles and Landscapes. Continuum: London, UK. ISBN 0-8264-5896-3.
- Creighton, Oliver and R. A. Higham. (2005) Medieval Town Walls. Tempus: Stroud, UK.
- Stroud, Gill. (2009) Extensive Urban Survey – Derbyshire: Castleton. Derbyshire County Council: Matlock, UK.
Attribution
The text of this page was adapted from “Peveril Castle” on the English language website Wikipedia, as the version dated 3 May 2020, and accordingly the text of this page is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Principal editors included Nev1, and the contributions of all editors can be found on the history tab of the Wikipedia article.
Photographs on this page include “View across the stream at south-west“, copyright author Abaroth, released for use “for non-profit purposes only”; the plan of the Castleon’s defences is based on an underlying map copyright OpenStreetMap contributors, and released under CC BY-SA 2.0.