Stockport Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Stoppord

In the civil parish of Stockport.
In the historic county of Cheshire (Modern Authority of Stockport, 1974 county of Greater Manchester).

Motte and bailey first mentioned in 1173 when Geoffrey de Costentyn held it against Henry II. It was ruinous when Leland visited the town between 1535 and 1543. Mentioned during the civil war it was finally levelled in 1775 by Sir George Warren. Evidence of the revetted bailey still exists. The bailey was entered from Churchgate and would have been first enclosed by a timber palisade and earthworks which were replaced around the start of C13 by stone walls. Two fragments of wall still survive, and are behind property on Mealhouse Brow and Great Underbank. Dent (1977) writes, that "the nature of the motte defences is not clear." Based on a plan of the walls made in 1775 Dent suggest a large tower on the motte similar to Pontefract (but twice the size). It seems incredible to me that a castle of a minor lord could be of such a size. I would suggest the entire castle was on the motte and that the town did lie in the area Dent suggests as the castle bailey

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

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SJ897905

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; 1085399

• Web site links
  • http://www.stockportmbc.gov.uk/trail/historic.htm
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern) p21
    Cullen, P.W. and Hordern, R., 1986, Castles of Cheshire (Crossbow Books) p12
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p69
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    Ridgway, Maurice Hill, 1958, 'Medieval Castles' in Sylvester, D. and Nulty, G. (eds), The Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Cheshire Community Council) p24-5
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p181
    Ormerod, G., 1882 [2edn], History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol3 p788
    Heginbotham, H., 1882, Stockport Ancient and Modern Vol1 p12, 41
    Watson, 1782, Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey (Warrington) Vol2 p190-5
• Journal Articles
  • Dent, J.S., 1977, ‘Recent excavations on the site of Stockport Castle' Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Vol79 p1-13
    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]
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p55
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1964, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Centaur Press) Vol5 p24