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Derbyshire
THE MEDIEVAL CASTLE
Although William Peverel's other north Derbyshire castle at Peak's Arse near the later town of
Castleton was already in existence in 1086, there appears to be no reference to the castle at
Bolsover before the honor of Peverel escheated to the Crown in 1155.
After this date the farmers of the honor accounted regularly at the Exchequer, but no work at
Bolsover castle is recorded in the Pipe Rolls until 1172–3, when the sheriff accounted for
three separate sums of 40s., £46 10s. and £41 10s. 3d. for work done there and at Peak castle,
as well as £20 and £135 for the maintenance of knights and serjeants there. He also laid in
provisions at Bolsover, including 40 quarters of wheat (53s. 4d.), 20 flitches of bacon (58s.)
and 60 cheeses (19s. 8d.). There were similar payments on the Pipe Roll for the following
year, when the castles at Nottingham, Bolsover and Peak had a garrison of 20 knights and 60
serjeants between them. Work done at Bolsover cost 40s. and other work at the two
Derbyshire castles a further £24. This expenditure seems likely to have been connected with
the rebellion against Henry II of 1173–4 and once the emergency was over nothing more was
done for the rest of the reign.
In 1192–3 the sheriff spent two sums of 20 marks and 100s. on provisioning Bolsover and
43s. on building a petrary and a mangonel. Five years later William Brewer accounted for 8s.
spent on repairing the houses at the castle. In 1198–9 Brewer spent £4 16s. on the repairs to
the castle itself, and in the following year two further sums of 27s. 2d. and 40s. Improvements
and repairs to the castle and houses are also recorded throughout the rest of John's reign: in
1200–1 (48s.), 1201–2 (32s.), 1202–3 (£7 13s. 4d., specifically on the turrets), 1203–4 (39s.
7d.), 1204–5 (£4 7s. 4d.), 1205–6 (69s. 8d.), 1206–7 (£4 6s.), 1207–8 (£6 4s. 1d.), 1208–9
(23s.), and 1209–11 (£19 10s. 4d. over two years). More important works are indicated by the
expenditure of £134 on Bolsover and Horston castles in 1208–9, although it is impossible to
say how much was spent on each. In 1211–12 a further 58s. was spent at Bolsover, together
with the purchase of four-score dozen esperdutii of iron and 20 quarterii (the latter costing £6
16s. 8d.), as part of programme of work at castles not directly concerned with the defence of
the kingdom against invasion but important as strongholds against a possible baronial
uprising. Another 62s. was spent two years later and a further 50s. in the first half of 1214–15.
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King John stayed at Bolsover in March 1200, when he issued two charters and a number of
fines were made before him. He was there again twelve months later, when he issued four
more grants.
In March 1226 Robert of Lexinton was given 260 chevrons from the king's woods at
Mansfield to enable him to build a barn 120 ft long and 36 ft wide at the castle. Later that year
Robert was reimbursed £4 15s. for making a kitchen there when the castle was in his custody,
and £7 10s. for repairs to the houses in the castle. In December Robert of Tattershall was
ordered to repair the breach in the castle wall made when the castle was besieged by William
Ferrers in 1216–17 when the earl was trying to secure seisin. A total of £33 was spent and a
new tower was built where the breach had been made. When another section of wall collapsed
in 1228 that too was replaced with a tower.
In 1247 Thomas de Stanford was allowed 25s. 8d. he had spent in repairing the buildings of
the castle when it was in his custody, and the following year the sheriff was ordered to repair
the gate at the castle. In 1250 he was authorised to repair the upper stages and battlements of
the great tower, to roof the tower with lead, and to repair the foundation of the wall of the
great bailey and the buildings of the castle which needed attention.
In January 1252 the justice of the forests was ordered to give Robert le Vavasour as much
timber from Sherwood as might be agreed between them to be necessary for works at
Bolsover. These included removing the ridge-pole of the queen's chamber in the castle, and
the joists and planks which were decayed, and rebuilding the roof; roofing a tower in the outer
bailey with lead and another in the inner bailey; and repairing the battlements and upper
floors, a breach in the wall, and other buildings as necessary. After this work was completed,
the custodian of the castle made an annual claim of £5 for the next four years for keeping the
buildings in repair. In 1256 the sheriff was ordered to repair unspecified defects at Bolsover,
where absolutely necessary. In 1267 the forest justice was ordered to give Alan le Usher 15
oaks for repairs to his houses at Bolsover, of the king's gift. Unspecified repairs costing £12
17s. 3d. were carried out at Bolsover in 1277–80.
In 1308, during the disturbances at the start of Edward II's reign, keepers throughout England,
including Bolsover, were ordered to fortify and guard their castles. Two years later,
immediately after he had taken possession of Bolsover, Robert de Maule was ordered to find
up to 40 oaks in the `foreign places' in the woods belonging to the castle for the repair of the
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buildings there. He was also ordered to provision and guard the castle, while the tenants of the
manor were instructed to assist the garrison and to take such measures for the safe keeping of
the castle as de Maule's men might make known to them. In 1313, after the crisis had passed,
de Maule was paid £179 18s. 4d. owing to him for expenditure on fortifying Bolsover and
Horston castles. A year later he was assigned £25 10s. a year from the farm of the borough of
Derby until such time as the balance of £140 3s. 8½d. due to him was cleared. In 1322 the
garrison was stood down and the castle was ordered to be kept as it had been before the
disturbances. The king's victuals there were to be kept safely at the keeper's risk and those that
would not keep were to be sold and others bought in their place.
Nothing more is heard of the military role of the castle after this episode until the Civil War,
and in 1398 the escheator reported that the castle was of no yearly value. In October 1395,
immediately after the death of Sir Richard Stury, who had held the manor since 1376, the
Crown ordered an enquiry into waste, strip and dilapidations in the castle and manor of
Bolsover. The order was repeated the following January.
In the early 16th century the site of the castle was farmed for 4s. a year and in both 1526 and
1546 leases of the demesnes referred to the `the site where the castle was situated'. John
Leland, on the hand, described Bolsover in the 1530s as a `fair lordship of the king's … where
as yet remains a great building of an old castle'. The buildings were evidently still sufficiently
complete to be used as a demesne farm by the Shrewsbury estate in the 1580s. Early in the
17th century the site was to be transformed with the building of a new mansion there.
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