England · Partial ruin
Bury Castle
Bury Castle was a late-medieval moated manor house in Bury, historically in Lancashire, built by Sir Thomas Pilkington in 1469. Its substantial stone foundations, including a large rectangular keep and a surrounding curtain wall, were later slighted and partially robbed, and survive today as scheduled ruins at Castle Square.
Its prime
1470
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1470
What Bury Castle looked like in its prime.
A large rectangular moated manor enclosure approximately 600 ft by 270 ft, defined by thick coursed stone curtain walls and a central rectangular keep about 82 ft by 63 ft with very thick masonry walls; the house would have had crenellated parapets, machicolated towers and turrets around the walls, all standing on a raised platform at the top of a slope overlooking the River Irwell, with the moat cutting around the platform.
Its story
The story of Bury Castle.
Bury Castle was a moated manor house built in 1469 by Sir Thomas Pilkington, lord of the manors of Bury and Pilkington and an influential member of the Lancashire gentry, on a slope overlooking the River Irwell. Edward IV granted him leave to "build to make and to construct walls and turrets with stone, lime and sand" and to "embattle, crenellate and machicolate those towers". Excavation has revealed six construction phases, the first, a house platform within a moat, dating from 1359 to 1400.
Pilkington backed the House of York in the Wars of the Roses, notably at Bosworth in 1485, and paid for it: Henry VII ordered the building razed to the ground and confiscated all his lands. By 1540 the antiquary John Leland could describe Bury Castle only as "a ruin of a castle by the Parish Church in the town", and the ruins were later looted for building material for Bury.
Thomas Percival drew the visible foundations in 1753, 600 by 270 feet, and in 1865 foundations of a keep 82 by 63 feet with walls six feet thick were found. In 1973 amateur archaeologists uncovered stonework beneath a car park, and the site, owned by Bury Council, has been open to the public since 2000 as the centrepiece of Castle Square.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1470.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Bury Castle, including 1 interior: interior of the keep (ground floor). Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Bury Castle.
The families that held Bury Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Pilkington
Built by Sir Thomas Pilkington in 1469 under licence from Edward IV; razed and confiscated by Henry VII after Pilkington backed York at Bosworth in 1485.
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