{{Short description|Medieval fortified manor house in Manchester, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Use British English|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox building |image=Chetham's.jpg |caption=Chetham's School of Music on the site of Manchester Castle |name=Manchester Castle |location=Manchester, England |pushpin_map =Greater Manchester |coordinates = {{coord|53.486768|-2.241911|display=inline,title}} |client=de Grelley family barons of Manchester |architectural_style =Fortified manor house }}
'''Manchester Castle''' was a medieval fortified manor house in what is now Manchester city centre, England. It was probably located on a bluff at the confluence of the rivers Irk and Irwell, close to Manchester Cathedral, on the site now occupied by Chetham's School of Music,<ref name="Newman141">Newman (2006), p. 141.</ref> placing it near the edge of the medieval township of Manchester ({{gbmapping|SJ839989}}).<ref name="Pastscape">{{cite web |title=Manchester Castle |url=http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1386094 |publisher=Pastscape.org.uk |access-date=2008-01-20}}</ref>
==History== thumb|left|Photo of Chethams from the other side of the River Irwell Manchester Castle was first referred to in 1184; in 1215 it was recorded as belonging to the Greslé family,<ref name="gatehouse">{{cite web |title=Manchester Castle |url=http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/1907.html |publisher=The Gatehouse - the comprehensive gazetteer of the medieval fortifications and castles of England and Wales |access-date=2008-03-18}}</ref> who were barons of Manchester.<ref name="Kidd13">Kidd (1996), p. 13.</ref> This is the last historic reference to the castle.<ref>Nevell (2008), p. 41.</ref> Before the manor house was built, Manchester Castle may have taken the form of a ringwork<ref name="Newman141" /> constructed from timber and with a wooden palisade.<ref name="Kidd13"/> This earlier castle has been described as "of no political or military importance".<ref name="Kidd13" /> Three rings of ditches have been discovered surrounding the likely site of the castle; however, these may be part of a Saxon burh or Norman castle.<ref name="Pastscape" />
In his book ''Warfare in England'' (1912), the author and historian Hilaire Belloc identified the "Manchester Gap", between the Pennines and the Mersey estuary, as one of the two most important defensive lines in medieval England, along with the line of the River Thames. Although Belloc ascribed great importance to Manchester and its supposed ability to hinder troop movements, the castle historian D. J. Cathcart King refuted this interpretation, nothing that the site was forgotten at an early date.<ref>Cathcart King (1983), pp. xx–xxi.</ref>
==See also== *History of Manchester *List of castles in Greater Manchester
==References== ;Notes {{reflist}} ;Bibliography {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |last=Cathcart King |first=David J. |title=Catellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume I: Anglesey–Montgomery |publisher=Kraus International Publications |year=1983}} *{{cite book |last=Kidd |first=Alan |year=1996 |orig-date=1993 |title=Manchester |publisher=Keele University Press |location=Keele |isbn=1-85331-028-X}} *{{cite book |last=Nevell |first=Mike |year=2008 |title=Manchester: The Hidden History |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-4704-9}} *{{cite journal |last=Newman |first=Caron |year=2006 |title=Medieval Period Resource Assessment |journal=Archaeology North West|volume=8 |pages=115–144 |issn=0962-4201}} {{refend}}
{{Manchester B&S}}
Category:Buildings and structures in Manchester Category:History of Manchester Category:Ringwork castles