page_title: Beeston Castle
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Beeston Castle / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Engraving of Beeston Castle
context_page_description: Beeston Castle is a former Royal castle in Beeston, Cheshire, England, perched on a rocky sandstone crag 350 feet above the Cheshire Plain. It was built in the 1220s by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, on his return from the Crusades. In 1237, Henry III took over the ownership of Beeston, and it was kept in good repair until the 16th century, when it was considered to be of no further military use, although it was pressed into service again in 1643, during the English Civil War. The castle was slighted in 1646, in accordance with Cromwell's destruction order, to prevent its further use as a bastion. During the 18th century, parts of the site were used as a quarry.
  The castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument owned and managed by English Heritage. The walls of the outer bailey and the gatehouse and curtain walls of the inner bailey are recorded separately in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade I listed buildings. A legend states that the royal treasure of Richard II was buried in the castle grounds but many searches have failed to discover the hoard.
context_section_description: Beeston was built for Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester in the early 13th century. The siting of the castle's outer bailey walls was chosen to take advantage of the fortifications remaining from the earlier Iron Age rampart. In medieval documents the castle is described as Castellum de Rupe, the Castle on the Rock. It is one of three major castles built by Ranulph in the 1220s, shortly after his return from the Fifth Crusade. The others are Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire, and Chartley, Staffordshire, both of which share similar architectural features with Beeston; in particular the design of the towers.
  Unlike many other castles of the period, Beeston does not have a keep as its last line of defence. Instead the natural features of the land together with massive walls, strong gatehouses, and carefully positioned towers made the baileys themselves the stronghold. The defences consisted of two parts. Firstly, a rectangular castle on the summit of the hill, with a sheer drop on three sides and a defensive ditch up to 30 feet (9 m) deep in places cut into the rock on the fourth side. Secondly, an outer bailey was built on the lower slopes, with a massive gatehouse protected by a 16 feet (5 m) wide and 10 feet (3 m) deep ditch.
  The outer bailey was roughly rectangular, with 6 feet (2 m) thick walls faced in sandstone and infilled with rubble. The walls, parts of which still remain, contain a number of D-shaped towers, an innovation in English castles at that time. The towers allowed defenders to shoot across the walls as well as forwards, and their open-backed design meant that they would not offer cover to any attackers who gained access to the outer bailey. The inner bailey was situated on the rocky summit at the western end of the crag.
  To provide the castle's inhabitants with a supply of fresh water two wells were dug into the rock, one of them, at 370 feet (113 m) deep, one of the deepest castle wells in England.
caption: Engraving of 1727 by the Buck Brothers, showing Beeston Castle from the south[15]
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