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Ellesmere Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Eselmer; Elesmeres; Mere; Hellesmer; Elsemere

In the civil parish of Ellesmere Urban.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ40313467
Latitude 52.9052° Longitude -2.8877°

Ellesmere Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle, and also as a certain Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

Medieval motte and bailey utilising a natural glacial moraine and surviving as an earthwork. It became a royal castle in 1138, by which time, presumably, stone structures had been built on the motte. The motte and bailey is thought to have been built by Roger de Montgomery shortly after 1086, for it was confiscated by the Crown after rebellion in 1101. The castle was abandoned some time after 1263. The mound is 80m in diameter across the base, 52m across the top, and stands 11m high. A ditch 20m wide and 3m deep separates the motte from the bailey to its South-East. The sub-rectangular bailey consists of a terrace, circa 34m by 70m, bounded on the North and East sides by a ditch. Earthworks to the North-West were once thought to be a second bailey, but are now known to be C19 and C20 landscaping.
Links to mapping and other online resources
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Sources of information, references and further reading

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
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This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013
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