Melbourne Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Meleburn

In the civil parish of Melbourne. In the historic county of Derbyshire (Modern Authority of Derbyshire, 1974 county of Derbyshire).

Length of ruined wall of the medieval fortified manor known as Melbourne Castle. This early C14 manor was preceded by earlier manor houses dating back to the first half of C11. The fortified manor is believed to have incorporated part of a royal manor house noted in C13 documents and is known to have possessed a variety of ancillary features at various periods in its history. The castle was built about 1311 when a licence to crenellate was given to Robert Holland. Extensive repairs were carried out between 1483-5. It was sold in 1604, by the Crown who were then the owners to the Earl of Huntingdon, who demolished it in 1637.

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1311 Jun 17.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law. This site is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 83039)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SK38912520

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; 313014

• Web site links
  • http://www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_midlands/128/melbournecastle.htm
    http://www.ecastles.co.uk/melbourne.html
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern) p23
    Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses Vol2 (Cambridge) p422-4
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p52 [slight]
    Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p64
    Smith, Michael E., 1992, Castles and Manor Houses in and around Derbyshire (Derby)
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p110
    Pevsner, Nikolaus revised by Elizabeth Williamson, 1978, Buildings of England: Derbyshire (Harmondsworth) p184, 279-80
    Kinross, John, 1973, Discovering Castles in England and Wales
    Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p738-9 [slight]
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Cox, 1905, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Derbyshire Vol1 p384
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p471-2
    Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol3 pt2 p406
• Journal Articles
  • Fane, W.D., 1889, 'Melbourne Castle and park' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Vol11
    Fane, W.D., 1881, '(Melbourne) Castle, Church, Hall and gardens (in Report of the Hon. Secretary)' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Vol3
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Calendar of Patent Rolls (1307-13) p358
    Rickard, John, 2002, The Castle Community. The Personnel of English and Welsh Castles, 1272-1422 (Boydell Press) [lists sources for 1272-1422] p168
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/lincseng.html#derb3]
    Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p282
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p21