Bury Castle, Lancashire

In the civil parish of Bury. In the historic county of Lancashire (Modern Authority of Bury, 1974 county of Greater Manchester).

Remains of medieval moated manor house fortified by licence granted by Edward IV in 1469, after which it became known as Bury Castle. It was later razed to the ground by order of Henry Tudor. Excavation of the site in the 1970s revealed six main phases of development and decline, the first construction of a house platform and moat being in 1359-1400. Some remains have now been consolidated and are on public view. Has been considered the site of large ?Norman keep. 1469 Sir Thomas Pilkington obtained a duchy licence to crenellate. Started to be dismantled from 1489, as Pilkington was support of Richard III and, after his death, the house went to Earl of Derby.

A Lancaster licence to crenellate was granted in 1469 May 2.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SD80341084

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape Defra ELS number; 45189

• Web site links
  • http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/tcsc/millennium2/Castle/Bury_Castle.htm
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern) p23
    Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses Vol1 (Cambridge) p198
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p136 [slight]
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p248
    Gibson, Leslie Irving, 1977, Lancashire Castles and Towers (Dalesman Books)
    Farrer, William and Brownbill, J. (eds), 1911, VCH Lancaster Vol5 p131
    Fishwick, 1907, in Fishwick and Ditchfield (eds), Memorials of Old Lancashire Vol2 p21
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p196-8
• Journal Articles
  • 1986, The Archaeology of Greater Manchester journal Vol2 p89-130
    Webster, L.E. and Cherry, J., 1974, ‘Medieval Britain in 1973' Medieval Archaeology Vol18 p209 [downloadable via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?medarch]
    Hardwick, C., 1867-8, 'On the ancient castle at Bury, Lancashire' Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Vol20 p17-32
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Charters of the Duchy of Lancaster; 37th Report of Deputy Keeper of Public Records, pt. 1, 179, No. 42
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p270
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol5 p43