Chesterton under Lyme
Has been described as a Rejected Timber Castle (Other/Unknown)
There are no visible remains
| Name | Chesterton under Lyme |
| Alternative Names | |
| Historic Country | Staffordshire |
| Modern Authority | Staffordshire |
| 1974 Authority | Staffordshire |
| Civil Parish | Newcastle under Lyme |
Two miles N. of Newcastle-under-Lyne, previous to the Conquest, there seems to have been a place of very considerable importance in Saxon times, with a town and a castle, whose founder is not known, though its existence is undoubted. It was conferred, about 1180, upon Ranulph de Gernons, Earl of Chester, who may have reared a fortress on the Saxon site, and we read of additions being made in the reign of John, who was there 1206, by timber buildings, and a wooden palisade surrounding it. The Earls of Chester used the place as an outpost of their Palatine possessions, and were governors, or custodes, of it, it being then the only castle in the county N. of Stafford. Henry III. took the castle from these earls and gave it, later, with Lancaster and Pickering, in 1267, to his second son, Edmund "Crouchback," then twenty-one years of age, whom he created Earl of Leicester after the death of Simon de Montfort at Evesham. This castle then went to decay, for Edmund, afterwards created Earl of Lancaster, built another, within two miles of it, which he called New Castle, when that at Chesterton, being chiefly, perhaps, of wood, passed away altogether. It was situated on the E. branch of the Trent, which had the name of the Lyme, or Lyne. (Mackenzie)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SJ831490 |
| Latitude | 53.0392684936523 |
| Longitude | -2.25312995910645 |
| Eastings | 383100 |
| Northings | 349000 |
