England · Partial ruin
Groby Castle
Groby Castle is a medieval motte-and-earthwork site in the village of Groby, Leicestershire. A stone tower was built on an artificial motte in the 12th century and the castle was slighted on Henry II's orders after the Revolt of 1173–74; today only earthworks and a fragmentary wall survive. The site later hosted a 13th-century manor house and is a Scheduled Monument.
Its prime
1170
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1170
What Groby Castle looked like in its prime.
A massive artificial motte rises from surrounding fields, topped in its prime by a stone tower; around it are concentric earthen ramparts and ditches forming ringwork-style defences and a rectangular set of outworks to the north-east. A single fragment of masonry remains at the motte's base beside the site of the later manor house and church. The castle stands on a grassy hill on the edge of the village with a road running past the north-east of the defences.
Its story
The story of Groby Castle.
Groby Castle sits in the large village of Groby, north-west of Leicester. Groby was one of 67 Leicestershire manors held by Grandmesnil according to the Domesday Book of 1086, and a stone tower was later raised on the artificial motte — Allen Brown suggests a foundation in the third quarter of the twelfth century by the Earl of Leicester.
Along with Leicester and Brackley, Groby was one of three of the earl's castles destroyed — slighted — on the orders of Henry II after the Revolt of 1173–74 led by his son, Prince Henry. Today only earthworks and a fragmentary wall survive, protected as a Scheduled Monument.
A thirteenth-century manor house later rose on the site. The name carries a fictional echo too: the ancestral seat of Christopher Tietjens in Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, published in 1925 and dramatised for television in 2012, is named Groby Hall.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1170.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Groby Castle — including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Groby Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1170 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Groby Castle.
The families that held Groby Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Grandmesnil
Groby was one of 67 Leicestershire manors held by Grandmesnil at Domesday in 1086.
Nearby
