Macclesfield Castle
Macclesfield Castle was a late medieval fortified manor house in Macclesfield, Cheshire, built of sandstone from 1398 and altered in the 15th century. By the 16th century it had fallen into decay and by the 20th century the surviving porch had been dismantled and the site built over.
Its prime
1496
Today
Demolished
As it stood in 1496
What Macclesfield Castle looked like in its prime.
A low, square sandstone manor roughly 140 by 39 yards with projecting lateral wings and decorative corner towers rising above a crenellated parapet; coursed rubble sandstone walls faced in places with ashlar. The west-side gateway/porch is a roughly 4.5 m square, 7.31 m high ashlar-faced tower with a castellated parapet and a vaulted interior bearing a carved Tudor rose. The building is set within a forecourt enclosed by a curtain wall of the same sandstone.
Its story
The story of Macclesfield Castle.
John de Macclesfield began construction of the castle in 1398, a square sandstone fortified manor house with projecting wings and decorative towers, probably influenced by the contemporary building of Bodiam Castle and alterations to Kenilworth, whose payments John may have organised as Keeper of the Wardrobe. Though he fell out of favour and returned home to Macclesfield after being replaced in that office, he was granted a licence to crenellate in 1410.
On John's death in 1422 his estates passed to his illegitimate children, and by 1444 the lands had been bought by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, after whose family the house became known as Buckingham Palace or Buckingham Castle. From 1485 it passed into the hands of the Stanley family, Earls of Derby; when Henry VII visited the Earl of Derby in Macclesfield in 1496, it is assumed he stayed at the castle.
By 1585 the building was ruinous, Smith's description that year recorded the square plan with projecting wings and decorative towers. All that survived into the 20th century was the porch, coursed rubble sandstone faced with ashlar, with an unusual vaulted interior bearing a Tudor rose dating it to the reign of Henry VII. It was dismantled in 1932 and the site reused for cottages and shops.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1496.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Macclesfield Castle, including 2 interiors: west porch (interior vault), inner chamber (later used by congregation). 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 Macclesfield Castle.
The families that held Macclesfield Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Macclesfield
John de Macclesfield built the castle from 1398; his estates passed to his children in 1422 and were sold by 1444.
Stafford
Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, bought the lands by 1444; under the Dukes of Buckingham the house became known as Buckingham Castle.
The Stanley family, Earls of Derby, held the castle from 1485.
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