Newhall Tower

In the civil parish of Newhall . In the historic county of Cheshire (Modern Authority of Cheshire, 1974 county of Cheshire).

Castle in this vicinity is mentioned in 1275. PastScape reports this as a tower house. 'Newhall Tower is said to have been built around 1227 by the lords Audley. Recorded descriptions imply a fortified manor, perhaps with a pele tower, and having a moat.' (Cheshire HER) Leland writes 'now down'. Recently a search of air photo's located the site in the centre of modern hamlet of Newhall, site partly overlaided by factory (a late C12 coin hord found when building this factory in 1939). "On the western side of the road are the visible remains of the castle consisting of an off-centre circular mound set within a square ditched depression. This is set within the remains of a large sub-rectilinear enclosure that survives as a mixture of earthworks and cropmarks. Significant quantities of dressed sandstone and architectural fragments have been found at the site and re-used, including pillar bases."(Anon 2007) Possibly associated with a park and water mill.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SJ60784550

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 1391047
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 2077; 4543 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern) p20
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p69
    Dodgson, J.McN., 1970-1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire Vol3 p101
    Ridgway, Maurice Hill, 1958, 'Medieval Castles' in Sylvester, D. and Nulty, G. (eds), The Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Cheshire Community Council) p24-5
    Ormerod, G., 1882 [2edn], History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol390-1
• Journal Articles
  • Anon, 2007, 'Newhall Tower' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol20 p147 [site identification report]
    Fradley, M., 2005 [published 2008], 'Newhall Tower: the identification of the medieval castle and a nearby cropmark from aerial photographs' Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society Vol80 p91-97
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Rickard, John, 2002, The Castle Community. The Personnel of English and Welsh Castles, 1272-1422 (Boydell Press) [lists sources for 1272-1422] p139-40
    National Archive (36 Edward III) C 143/344/7
    National Archive (5th October 14 Henry VIII) E 40/3358
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p56
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol5 p25 http://www.archive.org/details/itineraryofjohnl05lelauoft