Clitheroe Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Cliderow

In the civil parish of Clitheroe.
In the historic county of Lancashire (Modern Authority of Lancashire, 1974 county of Lancashire).

The monument includes the upstanding and buried remains of Clitheroe Castle, an enclosure castle constructed during the late C11 to early C12. The surviving medieval parts of the castle include the stone keep and the adjacent curtain wall which surrounds the keep on all sides except the south. A bailey lies to the south of the keep and was originally surrounded by a curtain wall. The keep is at present (1997) roofless and floorless and was originally a three storied building. Entrance to the bailey was originaly through a gatehouse. This gatehouse has now been demolished but its remains survive as a buried feature.

This site has been described as a;
Masonry Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This site is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 182766)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SD74224165

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 number; 44689

• Web site links
  • http://www.ribblevalley.gov.uk/static/page52.htm
    http://www.lancshalls.co.uk/Ribble%20Valley/clitheroecastle.htm
    http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/archaeology/archsites/arch16.asp
• Books
  • Ainsworth, C., 2003, Clitheroe From Burgage Plots to Boundary Stones
    Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern) p24
    Jones, R.O., 1997, A New Look at Old Clitheroe
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p134
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p245
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p210
    Gibson, Leslie Irving, 1977, Lancashire Castles and Towers (Dalesman Books)
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1969, Lancashire, 2. The rural north (Harmondsworth) p102
    Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p614 [slight]
    Armitage, Ella, 1912, The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles (London: John Murray) p129-32
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Gardner, 1908, in Farrer, William and Brownbill, J. (eds), VCH Lancaster Vol2 p523-4
    Fishwick, 1907, in Fishwick and Ditchfield (eds), Memorials of Old Lancashire Vol2 p7-11
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p183-4
    Clark, G.T., 1884, Medieval Military Architecture in England  (Wyman and Sons) Vol1 p397-402
    Buck, Samuel and Nathenial, 1774, Buck’s Antiquities (London) Vol1 p147
    Grose, F., 1756, Antiquities of England and Wales Vol3 p121-3
• Journal Articles
  • Adams, Paul, 2005-6, 'Clitheroe Castle' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol 19 p179-192
    2005-6, 'Clitheroe 'Keepers of Castle' campaign launched' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol 19 p130
    Edwards, B.J.N., 1984, ‘George Vertue’s engraving of Clitheroe Castle' Antiquaries Journal Vol64 p366–72
    Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p249-280]
    McNulty, J., 1941, 'Clitheroe Castle and its Chapel: Their Origins' Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Vol93 p45-53
    McNulty, J., 1939, 'The endowment of the chapel of Saint Michael in Clitheroe castle' Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Vol91 p159-163
    1929, Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society p249-53
    Armitage, E., 1904 April, 'The Early Norman Castles of England' The English Historical Review Vol74 p225-7
    Fishwick, H., 1901, 'The Old Castles of Lancashire' Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Vol19 p48-53
    Clark, G.T., 1873, The Builder Vol31 p1023-4 [reprinted in MMA]
• Guidebooks
  • Best, D., 1990, Clitheroe Castle, A guide (Preston) [has errors in architectural description]
    Jones, R.O., 1982, Clitheroe Castle
    Langshaw, A., 1940, A Guide to Clitheroe Castle
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/durhameng.html#lancs12]
• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Best, D.J., 1989, The historical evidence and building recording of Clitheroe Castle (Univesity of Birmingham Field Archaeology Unit)