ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



guard their respective sides of the River Ribble, and the important road north 

 and south which passed across it by a ford between and below them as late 

 as the middle of the eighteenth century. This road is shown on a map 

 dated 171 5. 



The site of the castle is now much excavated and built over ; the 

 present contour of the ground, however, and details shown in the 6-in. 

 Ordnance Survey map of 1 847, together with particulars recorded by Hard- 

 wick in 1855, just before its destruction, enable us to piece together some 

 idea of the nature of the earthwork. It stood upon the extremity of a pro- 

 jecting cliff, much of which has been cut away for a sand-pit. Two houses 

 in Tulketh Crescent, now occupied by the Church Army, were built upon 

 part of its remains, possibly a rampart, fifty years ago ; they are on ground 

 some 20 ft. higher than the adjoining row of houses on the west. The 

 mount was upon a portion of the cliff which has gone ; as shown in the 6-in. 

 Ordnance Survey map, it was circular and conical, with a basal diameter of 

 about 125 ft. Hardwick describes the partial destruction of the mount when 

 workmen were also ' busily occupied in filling up trenches and levelling the 

 ground for building and the working of the clay found into bricks.' He 

 says that there were considerable remains of a fosse which was ' semicircular 

 in form and detached the nose of a promontory from the mainland.' This 

 suggests the crescentic form of bailey, which agrees with the plan of Pen- 

 wortham opposite and with the majority of the mount and court forts in the 

 county. The old 6-in. Ordnance Survey does not show this semicircular fosse, 

 but to the north-west of the mount appear two parallel lengths of fosse 1 00 ft. 

 and 200 ft. long respectively, connected by a cross-length at one end. No 

 remains of masonry were recorded by Hardwick, pointing to the earthworks 

 having beeen surmounted by the usual timber palisades; 'ruins' of buildings 

 were mentioned by Baines, quoting from West ; but Hardwick clearly shows 

 that both Baines and West confused the remains at Tulketh with the ruins 

 of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene on the ' Maudlands ' at Preston. 



At whatever time the castle was constructed, it would seem to have 

 ceased to be in use for military purposes in 1123. In that year we find 

 that its site belonged to Stephen count of Boulogne, under the honour of 

 Lancaster, which had lately been given to him by his uncle, the king. The 

 count presented ' villam scilicet Tulketh ' to thirteen Cistercian monks from 

 Normandy, who established themselves there for four years, and then 

 migrated to Dalton-in-Furness, where they founded the great Furness Abbey 

 on land also given them by Count Stephen. The spot where these monks 

 settled in Tulketh is usually supposed to be upon the site of the castle 

 owned by Count Stephen." 



Rochdale. — Rather over a quarter of a mile south-west of the old 

 parish church, on the right-hand side of the new Manchester road, and 

 within the township of Castleton, are remnants of the earthworks of a 

 mount and court castle. They are situated upon the top of a lofty natural 

 hill, composed of sand and gravel, which forms a north-west spur of the 

 high ground to the south of the River Roch. The hill attains an altitude 

 of 480 ft. above sea level, and towers some 100 ft, above the low ground 



" Baines, Hist. Lanes, (ed. 1836), iv, 304; ibid. (ed. 1868), ii, 437, 630; Hardwick, Hist, of Preston 

 (1857), 117-20, 508 ; Ord. Surv. i-in. 75 ; old 98 NW. ; 6-in. 61 SW.; 25-in. 61,9. 



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