Pulford Castle
The Motte and Bailey Castle at Pulford was built at an unknown date before 1245. Much of the site has survived as well defined earthworks to this day and the remains are deemed to be of national importance and are scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
A survey of the site of the Norman castle
by Michael and Jennifer Nethercott
Pulford Castle formed part of England’s defences along the boarder with Wales in the early Norman period. There were five such castles of the motte and bailey type defending Chester against Welsh invasion. These were at Shotwick, Truman’s Hill (Hawarden), Dodleston, Pulford and Aldford (on the English side of the River Dee).
Motte and bailey castles were a combination of earthworks and timber structures. There was little or no masonry. The motte, or tower, was constructed of timber on top of a man-made (sometimes natural) mound, surrounded by a wooden stockade with the bailey, or courtyard, similarly protected by a stockade with a wooden bridge or drawbridge over a ditch – often dry.
The Manor of Pulford was mentioned in Doomsday, 1086, and was held by Hugh Fitz Osbern – one of the tenants of the Earl of Chester. The earliest surviving documentary reference to the existence of Pulford Castle is from the 13th century. The manor was later held by the Ormsbee and Pulford families, with the Pulford’s later taking full possession of the manor.
The site of Pulford Castle was surveyed by students of University College Chester in 1997 as part of a continuing project to investigate the castles of west Cheshire. Remains of the castle lie in an escarpment to the north of Pulford Brook and to the south of the present church. The castle formerly controlled this important bridging point on the border between England and Wales.
The present form of the castle remains (see A Survey of Pulford Castle) differs considerably from the plan taken from an early unidentified source published by the 19th century county historian, George Ormerod. That plan shows semi-circular earthwork enclosing three sides of the motte, while the remaining side was protected by a brook. The church is shown in its pre-1833 form as a simple rectangular building within an enclosure attached to the castle earthwork. The Chester to Wrexham road is shown following the curving line of the castle’s western defences.
Later remodelling of Pulford obscured the earlier form of the castle remains, although minor elements in the landscape may add to our understanding of the monument. The builders of the castle took advantage of the natural topography by cutting the motte from the escarpment and further raised its height by clumping material from the ditch to its summit. The survey revealed a slight bank along the top of the western defences, which may replicate the line of a defensive palisade. A slight hollow and bank surveyed along the southern fence line may indicate that the southern circuit defences were enclosed by Pulford brook.
The lack of any evidence of masonry at the site of the castle would indicate that early military occupation would have been short-lived. If the castle was originally of the classical motte and bailey form, then it is most likely that the bailey was sited within the churchyard. This would be similar to Aldford, where the church is located within the castle bailey.
The strategic importance of Pulford Castle continued and was recognised in the early 15th century by the future Henry V when he ordered Sir Thomas le Grosvenor to hold the castle against the threat of a Welsh invasion under Owen Glendower (Owain Glyndŵr).
References
“A Survey of Pulford Castle” by Susan Reynolds and Graeme White, students of University College Chester, 1997 PC(NGR SJ 3751 5870) Cheshire History Number 37 1997-98.
“The Evolution of the English Castle, with Special Reference to the Castles of North Wales” Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society (JCAS) New Series Volume 50 1963.
Castles of Cheshire by P.W.Cullen & R.Horden.
A Personal Reflection on the Castle
This article first appeared in Essentials Mag in March 2019
by Peter Gosmore
Every morning when I am at home I raise the bedroom blinds and look out towards the rising sun - just a normal fairly rural and simple scene. For years I was aware that there was some sort of fortress opposite my house but really had invested very little brainpower into the legend and history of this antiquarian site (this is how it is described on maps). I just saw that the current custodians of these few somewhat anonymous mounds were the squirrels who play in the trees above. When I agreed to write something for this magazine I assumed that two simple words 'Pulford+Castle' entered onto Google would produce a multitude of pages (after all, we are used to that situation are we not?). Try it - surprisingly little comes up and most of the listings were saying much the same thing. It seems that there are lots of 'Pulford Castles' around - I began to become more curious and almost in desperation for facts, I turned to a beautiful book written and published in 2010 by Pulford and Pulton Local History Group and called Pulford and Poulton in Cheshire - Through the Ages.
It seems that following the successful Norman invasion of England in 1066, Hugh d'Avranches was created the first Earl of Chester and in order to subjugate the marauding Welsh he ordered the construction of a series of border castles with Pulford being one of these. It was built as a mound (or motte) surrounded by a curtain wall (or bailey) and was strategically constructed next to Pulford Brook which today still marks the Welsh border.
Over the years, there were few hostilities until the 12th Century when there was a spike of activity as the Welsh decided to do some plundering, burning, pillage (whatever that is), and presumably, a little laying waste. In the early 15th Century, Henry IV ordered preparation of the border castles against the expected invasion of Owain Glyndŵr which was eventually defeated from whence Pulford Castle gradually was abandoned and by the 17th Century was in decay.
Now, even these ruins have gone and the squirrels are once more the squabbling keepers of this ancient site. An unremarkable yet somehow interesting story where man's hostilities against man have had a lasting and profound effect on the topography between the Church and the border with Wales in the relatively 'level' village of Pulford.