Doddington Castle

Performance Spaces

Overview

History

Bibliographic Sources

Legend
map legend

Base layers

Data layers

Other Images

18th c. view
Carved knights
NE view
Tower and 18th c. hall
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Venue Type & Location

Private Residence

Site Name: Doddington Castle
Location: near Nantwich
County: Cheshire
Location Type: Countryside - at determined location

Overview

Located in the fertile Cheshire plain a few miles SE of Nantwich, on a main route to Staffordshire, not far from the county border.

Only the red sandstone solar tower remains standing on the site of the medieval fortified manor house of the Delves family. The withdrawing room was in the tower, adjacent to the great hall in the E block.

Performance History

Probable performance venue. No relevant Delves family accounts survive but an early 16th c. payment in Shrewsbury indicates patronage of entertainers who may have performed at Doddington as well.

Current Status

Mostly destroyed. The estate and 18th c. hall are still privately owned.

History of the Venue

1364 License to crenellate granted to Sir John Delves.

early 17th c. New residence built at the NW corner of the tower.

164x Jacobean residence twice occupied by parliamentarians.

1727 Delves estate passed to the Broughton family via marriage.

1777--98 Rebuilding of a fashionable new hall by Samuel Wyatt across the fields from the original castle. Jacobean hall and moat destroyed but the tower retained as a romantic landscape feature.

Record Source

REED Shropshire 1.187

Patrons who owned this venue

Name Dates Titles
Delves, Henry 1498-1560 Knight

Bibliographic Sources

View a list of abbreviations.

  • Broughton, Delves. Records of an Old Cheshire Family: A History of the Lords of the Manors of Delves near Uttoxeter in the County of Stafford and Doddington in the County of Chester. London: Arnold Fairbairns, 1908.
  • Emery, Anthony. Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales 1300–1500. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996–2006.
  • Figueiredo, Peter de, and Julian Treuherz. Cheshire Country Houses. Chichester: Phillimore, 1988.
  • Gallichan, Walter M. Cheshire. London: Methuen, 1928.
  • King, David J. Cathcart. Castellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands. 2 vols. Millwood, NY, London and Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus International Publications, 1983.
  • Mackenzie, James D. The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1896.
  • Nares, Gordon. 'Doddington Hall, Cheshire – I: The Property of Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, Bt.' Country Life 113 (6 Feb. 1953): 344–7.
  • Nares, Gordon. 'Doddington Hall, Cheshire – II: The Property of Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton, Bt.' Country Life 113 (13 Feb. 1953): 414–17.
  • Pettifer, Adrian. English Castles: A Guide by Counties. Woodbridge: The Boydell P, 1995.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, and Edward Hubbard. Cheshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth, Midd: Penguin Books, 1971.
  • Robinson, John Martin. A Guide to the Country Houses of the North West. London: Constable, 1991.