Beeston Castle is a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England (), perched on a rocky sandstone crag above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester (1170–1232), on his return from the Crusades. In 1237, Henry III took over the ownership of Beeston, and it was kept in good repair until the 16th century, when it was considered to be of no further military use, although it was pressed into service again in 1643, during the English Civil War. The castle was slighted (partly demolished) in 1646, in accordance with Cromwell's destruction order, to prevent its further use as a bastion. During the 18th century, parts of the site were used as a quarry.

The castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument owned and managed by English Heritage. The walls of the outer bailey and the gatehouse and curtain walls of the inner bailey are recorded separately in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade I listed buildings. A legend states that the royal treasure of Richard II was buried in the castle grounds but many searches have failed to discover the hoard.

Location

The castle is built on Beeston Crag, which is in the southerly part of the Mid Cheshire Ridge, a chain of low sandstone hills that stretches from the River Mersey down to the central region of the Cheshire Plain. The low-lying area between the southerly and the northern ranges of the ridge is known as the Beeston Gap. It was formed by a meltwater channel at the end of the Ice age.

The crag, just like the neighbouring Peckforton Hills, is part of a thicker sequence known as the New Red Sandstone. It was formed from easterly dipping layers of Triassic sandstone. The lower slopes are formed from Wilmslow Sandstone Formation while the upper strata are part of the Helsby Sandstone Formation, which is around 245 million years old. The hillock is capped by a small outcrop of sandstones assigned to the Tarporley Siltstone Formation (and formerly known as the Keuper Waterstones). Both types of sandstones were once quarried at multiple sites within the castle grounds.

Along the eastern margin of the hill is the Peckforton Fault, a major north–south-aligned geological fault which downthrows the strata to the east. A low ridge of glacial moraine extending east from the castle lodge is interpreted as marking an ice front during the retreat (or stagnation in situ) of the Irish Sea ice sheet which had invaded Cheshire from the northwest during the last ice age.

Prehistory

thumb|right|A model showing Beeston's Iron Age settlement

Pits dating from the 4th millennium BC indicate that the site of Beeston Castle was inhabited or used as a communal gathering place during the Neolithic period. Archaeologists have discovered Neolithic flint arrow heads on the crag, as well as the remains of a Bronze Age community, and of an Iron Age hill fort. In medieval documents the castle is described as Castellum de Rupe, the Castle on the Rock. It is one of three major castles built by Ranulph in the 1220s, shortly after his return from the Fifth Crusade. The others are Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire, and Chartley, Staffordshire, both of which share similar architectural features with Beeston; in particular the design of the towers.

thumb|right|Ruins of [[Bolingbroke Castle]]

thumb|right|Ruins of [[Chartley Castle]]

thumb|right|Engraving of 1727 by the [[Samuel and Nathaniel Buck|Buck Brothers, showing Beeston Castle from the south]]

Unlike many other castles of the period, Beeston does not have a keep as its last line of defence. Instead the natural features of the land, together with massive walls, strong gatehouses, and carefully positioned towers, made the baileys themselves the stronghold. The defences consisted of two parts. Firstly, a rectangular castle on the summit of the hill, with a sheer drop on three sides and a defensive ditch up to deep in places cut into the rock on the fourth side. Secondly, an outer bailey was built on the lower slopes, with a massive gatehouse protected by a wide and deep ditch.

The outer bailey was roughly rectangular, with thick walls faced in sandstone and infilled with rubble. The walls, parts of which still remain, contain a number of D-shaped towers, an innovation in English castles at that time. The towers allowed defenders to shoot across the walls as well as forwards, and their open-backed design meant that they would not offer cover to any attackers who gained access to the outer bailey. The inner bailey was on the rocky summit at the western end of the crag. Edward succeeded Henry as King of England in 1272, and completed the conquest of Wales.

In the middle of the 14th century there are references to men of Cheshire who were made constables of the royal castle. The constable would probably have lived in or near the gatehouse. The habitation was described in an account of the castle in 1593 by Sampson Erdeswicke, which describes, "a goodly strong gatehouse, and strong wall with other buildings, which when they flourished were a convenient habitation for any great personage."

Beeston was kept in good repair and improved during Edward's reign, and throughout the 14th century. However, by the 16th century the castle was considered to be of no further use to the English Crown, and in 1602 it was sold to Sir Hugh Beeston (c. 1547–1626) of Beeston Hall. In the mid-19th century the castle was the site of an annual two-day fete, raising money for local widows and orphans and attracting more than 3,000 visitors a day.

The views from Beeston stretch across eight counties from the Pennines in the east to the Welsh mountains in the west.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Photographs and history of Beeston Castle
  • Visitor information from English Heritage