Woodcroft Castle

In the civil parish of Etton.
In the historic county of Northamptonshire (Soke of Peterborough) (Modern Authority of Peterborough; City of, 1974 county of Cambridgeshire).

Weak stone castle built about 1280, quadrangle in plan, one round tower, roughly square gatehouse, possible never finished. Incorperated into farmhouse. What remains is the west side of the original building with a central gateway and a circular tower at the north end. There was probably a courtyard at the centre and the 3 other sides and the associated corner towers are no longer standing. Ashlar. West front has central 3-storey gateway with wide double-chamfered segmental arched entrance, and flanking 2 storey 3-bay wings. On the north end is a 3-storey circular corner tower rising from the moat. The tower, gateway and attic storeys have single-light windows with shouldered heads set in chamfered recesses. The rest of the windows are mainly 2-, 3- or 4-light stone mullion windows with straight heads and arched lights. Moulded string courses at floor levels. L-shaped on plan with short early Tudor wing to north-east. Interior has large medieval fireplace.

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

listed building

Images of England

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TF140045

PastScape number; 350333

Books

Salter, Mike, 2002, Index and Amendments to Mike Salter's English Castles Books (Malvern) p9
Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern) p22
Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses Vol2 (Cambridge) p322
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p168
Taylor, Alison, 1986, Castles of Cambridgeshire (Cambridge)
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p318
Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1968, Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough p367-8
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Downman, E.A., 1906, in Serjeantson, R.M., Ryland, W. and Adkins, D. (eds), VCH Northampton Vol2 p488-90
Dryden, Sir H., 1903, Memories of Old Northamptonshire (London) p207-10
Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol1 p341-3

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations.

It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from any site without proper recording and reporting. Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get with this site.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

¤¤¤¤¤

Woodcroft Castle

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TF140045

Sources of information, references and further reading