More information : SD 7970 1298: Castle Steads (NR) (1)
Castle Steads (Site of Camp) (NAT) (2)
Steads at Walmersley cum Shuttleworth. Earthwork Class X (Includes defensive and non-defensive works which cannot be classified without difficulty from outward appearance). (3)
".....said to have been only an intrenchment of the Parliamentary army when Bury was besieged and its castle battered by cannon planted at the head of a wood in Walmersley. Nothing remains of these works but the name of the close, the tenant occupying it having levelled the trenches". (4)
Local tradition claims that Bury Castle was battered by the
Parliamentarian army from Castle Steads a mile and a half away but the evidence of Leland shows Bury Castle to have been a ruin a century before. (5)
A good site defended on all sides except the north east by steep slopes. The flat top has been cultivated by ridge and furrow which has probably destroyed any trace of previous antiquity. (6)
Geophysical and earthwork survey between 1984 and 1986 suggested an earlier date for the site, identifying it as a possible univallate hillfort of pre-Roman date. (7)
SD 7969 1298: Promontory fort called Castlesteads located on the east bank of the River Irwell 550 metres south east of Banks Farm. The remains show a defended settlement on a natural promontory the nose of which is cut off by a 6m wide ditch running north to south for 120 metres. On the south side is the silted former channel of the Irwell which would have added further defence. The fort interior is triangular with its northern side being 100 metres long and southern side 140 metres long. At the north east corner a rampart has been constructed to defend the top of the steep scarp to the north which continues past the ditch and into the east field for 20 metres. The site was partially excavated in 1982 and extensive remains of pits and post holes of former buildings were identified in the central area. Pottery found shows the site occupied during 200 BC to AD 250, Iron Age. Scheduled.(8) |