Castle Donington

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Donnington; Dunnington

In the civil parish of Castle Donington.
In the historic county of Leicestershire (Modern Authority of Leicestershire, 1974 county of Leicestershire).

Medieval enclosure castle with outer and inner ditches surviving as earthworks, partly infilled. Buried foundations of casle built circa 1150, destroyed in 1215, rebuilt circa 1290 and ruinous by 1565. It was demolished in 1595. The enclosure castle occupies a sub-circular area about 160m in diameter defined by a pair of ditches cutting off the tip of the promontory from the plateau to the south. The main buildings of the castle occupied the irregularly-shaped platform in the centre of the site and it is clear from documentary references and finds made in the 1940's that the platform was surrounded by a substantial curtain wall with at least five towers. A stone lined well was found in 1978.

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

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SK44842759

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 315372

Books

Cantor, Leonard, 2003, The Scheduled Ancient Monument of Leicestershire and Rutland (Leicester: Kairos Press) p31
Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern) p35
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p141 [slight]
Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p37
Hartley, R. F., 1984, The Mediaeval Earthworks of North West Leicestershire, A survey (Leicester)
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p253
Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p219
Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
Kinross, John, 1973, Discovering Castles in England and Wales p102
Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol2: the Middle Ages (London) p628-9 [slight]
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Wall, 1907, in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol1 p256
Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p412
Nichols, J., 1795, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire Vol3 p770

Journal Articles

Higgins, Tim, 2002, 'Archaeology in Leicestershire and Rutland 2001' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol76 p104-5 [slight]
Creighton, O.H., 1997, 'Early Leicestershire Castles: Archaeology and Landscape History' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol71 p31, 34
McWhirr, A.D. and Winter, M.J., 1978-79, 'Medieval Castles Additional Information' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol54 p74-75
Cantor, Leonard, 1977-8, 'The Medieval Castles of Leicestershire' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol53 p335
1969-70, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol45 p74-8
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]
Clarke, D.T.-D., 1952, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol28 p42
Farnham, G. and Thompson, A.Hamilton, 1925-6, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol14 p32-70 [history]

Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/huntseng.html#leics9]
Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p282

Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)

Reaney, D., 1976, Excavations at Castle Donington, Leicestershire (Unpub site notebook Leics. SMR)

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