Peel Hall Motte
Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Motte)
There are no visible remains
Name | Peel Hall Motte |
Alternative Names | |
Historic Country | Cheshire |
Modern Authority | Cheshire |
1974 Authority | Cheshire |
Civil Parish | Horton Cum Peel |
This site has been considered by some writers to be a castle but is rejected as such by Hogg and King as is considered to be a moated house. However, in the later Castellarium Anglicanum King considers it a possible motte (Had King forgotten his earlier dismissal or had he reconsider it?). PastScape records 'Remains of a moat and motte and bailey which were bulldozed in 1948.' This was a mound in the grounds of Peel Hall measuring '50ft in circumference' (sic - ? diameter) with gazebo on top. A medieval pele tower is said to have stood within a moat at the site of the current Hall.
Earthworks and structures alleged by previous authorities to a form a moat or motte and bailey are in fact remains of a formal garden arrangement associated with the Hall. Although now much degraded and visible as only as a roughly circular ditch or sunken area some 10m wide and 0.2m deep with an overall diameter of 54-56m, the earthworks are pricipally the remains of a ditched ornamental mound or mount, originally 54m in diameter overall with the mound itself 37m in diameter: a structure on the mound may have been a summerhouse or gazebo. There is evidence that this mound was part of a more extensive formal garden which has been subjected to changes in layout throughout the history of the house. (Everson)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid Reference | SJ498696 |
Latitude | 53.2215805053711 |
Longitude | -2.75198006629944 |
Eastings | 349890 |
Northings | 369650 |