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Summary

Dilapidated remains of an 'embattled house' built between 1608 and 1611; demolished in 1720. It was the home of the Fulwood family.

Monument Type(s):

• (Former Type) COUNTRY HOUSE (Post Medieval - 1604 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• EDR1168 - Ordnance Survey Field Report, 17-FEB-66
• EDR137 - Unnamed Event
• EDR638 - Unnamed Event
• EDR3413 - Geophysical survey, Fulwood's Castle, by S.M Garrod, in 1991

Full Description

SK 1970 6334. Castle (remains of). (1,5). Remains of a ruined structure at the rear of Castle Farm, Middleton-by-Youlgreave. Wall lines and remains can be identified. Traditionally the 17th century house of Christopher Fulwood, it was excavated by T. Bateman in 1855, without result. (2,5). "Now but a few stones and fragments of a wall about a mound known as Fulwood's Castle", the 17th century home of Christopher Fulwood. (3,5). Foundation wallings exist standing to a maximum height of 0.6 metres. With three larger fragments of undressed stone masonry to a maximum height of three metres, elsewhere disturbed grassed mounds indicate other foundation walling forming no coherent pattern. Published survey (25") revised. (4,5).

Constructed between 1608 and 1611 by Sir George Fulwood and inherited in 1624 by Christopher Fulwood who, in November 1643, was killed by Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War. The house seems to have fallen into decay and became entirely dilapidated in the course of the next century. In 1720 the building was demolished and the materials used to build a large barn and other outbuildings around Castle Farm. A manuscript of 1721 describes the building as an 'embattled house'. It was provided with a walled garden and walled orchard. A carriage drive from the village passed through an ornamental gateway and along an avenue of trees. In 1848 and 1849 Thomas Bateman conducted excavations, attempting to find the building's cellars but only found the fireplace to the kitchen. He concluded that the building must have had a vaulted basement. He found sherds of plain and marbled pottery of English and Dutch origin, a few ornamented knife handles of bone and several 16th and 17th century coins. (6,7). After Bateman had completed his excavations, he "guarded the vestiges of the old Fulwood residence from further spoliation by surrounding them with walls". (8).

In 1598 the Cokaynes sold the Manor of Middleton to Francis and Thomas Fulwood whose ancestors had settled at Middleton about a century earlier. The latter's grandson, Sir George Fulwood of Middleton, built an 'embattled house' of 'considerable magnitude' there at the beginning of the 17th century. His son, Christopher, an ardent Royalist, was captured there by Sir John Gell in 1643 and died, allegedly of a gunshot wound, shortly afterwards. His heirs were forced to sell in the following year, whereupon the house remained deserted. It was partially demolished by the Curzons in around 1722. It had mullioned windows of 'considerable architectural pretensions', a walled garden and an orchard all approached by a carriage drive from the village through an ornamental gate (demolished c.1900), an avenue of trees having been felled in the 19th century. By the early 20th century there were only 'a few stones and a chimney stack' surviving, with the foundations and driveway still visible. The site was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848. (9).

An area of 40 metres square on the eastern side of the remains was chosen for a resistivity survey as this was thought most likely to have been the walled garden reported by Bateman. An area of low resistance was detected in the south-east quarter of the garden, possibly representing a homogenous soil with uniform properties possibly caused by cultivation. Three high-resistance linear features were detected running across the garden, two north-south and one east-west. They could be the remains of internal dwarf walls or path foundations. A second smaller area of ten metres square was surveyed partially across the carriageway from the manor house into the village. The route of the carriageway was detected as a high resistance feature. (10).

<1> Ordnance Survey (OS), 1955, 6" (Map). SDR11765.

<2> Cox, J, 1905, 'Ancient Earthworks', The Victoria County History, Derbyshire, Volume 1, p387 (Bibliographic reference). SDR16548.

<3> Mee, A (ed), 1937, Derbyshire, p193 (Bibliographic reference). SDR302.

<4> F1 JB 17-FEB-66 (Personal Observation). SDR6372.

<5> NDAT, 1541 (Index). SDR10573.

<6> Bateman, T, 1860, 'Christopher Fullwood, the Royalist: an episode of the Great Rebellion', The Reliquary (Article in serial). SDR19523.

<7> Bateman, T, 1855, Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities at Lomberdale House (Bibliographic reference). SDR2980.

<8> Tilley, J, 1892, Old Halls, Manors and Families in Derbyshire (Bibliographic reference). SDR19524.

<9> Craven, M & Stanley, M, 1984, The Derbyshire Country House, Vol II, p86 (Bibliographic reference). SDR18913.

<10> Garrod, S M, 1992, 'A Geophysical Survey of Fulwood's Castle', Unpublished undergraduate project report, University of Sheffield (Unpublished document). SDR19275.

Sources and Further Reading

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