Partney Castle

Description

Possible castle documented at Partney in 1141-2. (PastScape ref. King located in square TF4168)

Partney: Castle mentioned in a charter of 1141-2 (Bodelian MS. Fairfax IX, f. 105v, cited in Early Yorkshire Charters X, pp. 114-5) perhaps that at Dalby (TF 412698). (Renn)

A document of William de Roumare, earl of Cambridge and Lincoln, is addressed from his castle of Partney.

The fact there is no securely identifiable site for this 'castle' suggests it was not a major building, indeed it seems likely it was a ordinary timber manor house dressed up with the title castle, in just one document, to reflect the status of the Earl not the status of the building. However it may also be that the even the more modest holdings of an early would have some defences to reflect that status and in Lincolnshire, which had a large medieval population and intense agriculture, in is not inconceivably that a modest earthwork could have been lost before the era of antiquarian recording. Partney could be a manor William de Roumare took from Gilbert de Gant after his capture at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141 as the manor is recorded as being held by Gilbert's father in 1086. However it should be noted that Gilbert de Gant had granted enough land at Partney in 1115 for a hospital to be founded there; it may be the manor was wealthy enough to support a secular manor of the earls of Lincoln and a religious house but a single reference in one charter does live the possibility of a scribal error and perhaps something other than castle (i.e. hospital) was actually intended.

King gives no site. The location given here is that of the parish church of Partney.

Dalby (TF412702) is a potential location suggested by Derek Renn although Gatehouse feels the tenurial history makes this most unlikely.