Mackworth Castle

The date of construction of the castle is uncertain; ranges have been given from the early 14th to the late 15th centuries.[2] The first Mackworth, Henry du Mackworth, appears in the Pipe Rolls of 1254, and the MackWorth lineage can be followed from the early part of the 15th century.[2] Mackworth castle remained in the family until 1655 or 1656, when it was sold by Sir Thomas Mackworth, 3rd Baronet, who had relocated to Normanton in Rutland,[3] to Sir John Curzon, 1st Baronet.[2][4] Local legend says that the castle was destroyed during the Parliamentary Civil War by some ordnance on a nearby hill.[2] However, Rev. Charles Kerry of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society questions whether the castle had already begun to decline before its purchase by Curzon, noting that, "Had Mackworth Castle been a place suitable for the reception of the Queen of Scots, Sir Ralph Sadler would not have overlooked it when en route with his charge for Tutbury."[5] Sadler chose to lodge Mary, Queen of Scots, a decision which irritated Queen Elizabeth. He wrote in explanation on 5 February 1584, that he would not have done so had there been any appropriate houses anywhere near that town in which to house his charge.[5]

Primarily, what remains of the building is its gatehouse, a square, heavily battlemented structure which could stand as a separate building in itself.[2] According to English Castles: A Guide by Counties, the gatehouse was a Tudor-era addition;[6] Kerry dates it to a little before 1500.[5] Some understanding of the layout of the rest of the building can be derived from the rectangular spaces on the west of the gatehouse, which once formed courtyards.[2] The ruined gatehouse is a Grade I listed building.[7][8]

According to Anthony Emery in Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500: East Anglia, Central England and Wales, the structure may never have been very grand. He recounts that a 1911 survey suggested that the walls surrounding those spaces were likely "timber-framed on low rubble walls", similar to the nearby 14th-century house of the Tuchet family, for whom the Mackworths served as stewards.[9] Emery writes that "[t]he gateway was no more than a display structure, a very early example of that hankering for a world of chivalry and romance that had already passed."[9]

• Kerry, Rev. Charles (1889). "Mackworth: its Castle and its Owners". In Derbyshire Archaeological Society (ed.). Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. 11. The Society. pp. 1–9.