Millennium Project
Rob Forsyth
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Deddington Castle is a scheduled ancient monument, the inner bailey site is in the guardianship of the Department of the Environment (English Heritage oversight) and the outer bailey of Deddington Parish Council.
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A brief history
The site lies to the east of the town and comprises some 8 acres. The castle was built by or for Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half brother of William the Conqueror, as the headquarters of his extensive estates in Oxfordshire, and appears to have been a place of considerable strength in the twelfth century.There was a mound and timber castle when Odo took over the Castle. He strengthened its defences, building a stone castle on the site some time after 1086. This was reinforced in the 1100s but became less useful in the 1200s, and by the end of the 14th century the castle had largely gone, the stones being sold, “borrowed”, or carted away. The inner bailey was excavated in the 1940s and 1970s, revealing fine ashlar stone foundations which still lie under today’s grass mound. A Saxon penny was found near it; 12th century glass from it is in the Ashmolean Museum; excavations revealed the oldest black rat skeleton in the country.
Mid 12th Century. William de Chesney, Lord of Deddington, held the castle in the mid twelfth century when England was ravaged by civil war, but during the struggle between King Richard and his brother Prince John in the late twelfth century it was seized by the Crown. Descendants of the Chesneys, the Dive family, regained possession in the thirteenth century and styled themselves 'Lord of Deddington Castle', but by the end of that century it was partially demolished and by 1310 there seems to have been little left apart from "a chamber and a dovecote".
In the 1360s St George's Chapel, Windsor, subsequently
acquired the Castle from the Dive family. By 1377 stonework
from the walls was being sold off. To the south east of the site
is a field known as 'The Fishers' which was presumably originally the fish-pond for the castle. It remained in the
Chapel's ownership until 1867 when it was forfeited to the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners. To read more about St George's ownership
of Castle and land in Deddington click on the image (l) of the deed seal
1945 Purchase By Parish Council (PC). The Church Commissiners conveyed the castle grounds into the ownership of the Parish Council for the sum of £600 raised by public subscription but the Castle Mound remained under the supervision of English Heritage.
Declaration of Trust 1956 At a Public meeting on 8 November 1954 a resolution was passed for the Parish Council to adopt and use the £761.7s.5d raised by the 'King George VI Coronation Fund' and the 'Queen Elizabeth Coronation Fund' (aka known as 'Deddington Coronation Celebration Fund') for the purpose of erecting a Pavilion on the Castle grounds. The funds were formally accepted by the PC in November 1956 and the Trust Deed was signed on 12 December 1956.
The Coronation funds were never used to pay for the Pavilion but remained invested, along with proceeds from the 1938 Fair, for the purpose of eventually building a village hall; which itself was not fulfilled until The Windmill Centre was opened in 1986.
The linked documents in this section are contained in the Parish Archive, Box 16 Item 02, along with other relevant documents.
Pavilions and sports activities over the years
Before the Windmill Centre opened the Grounds were the sports field and general amenity for the Parish and an account can be found HERE. Today they are a popular recreational area for walking dogs, picnicking and general use cared for by the Friends of the Castle Grounds.
Archaelogical digs
There have been a number of archaeological "digs" between 1947 & 53 and again between 1977 & 79. These have uncovered evidence of some Saxon building on the site, but the main evidence, both archaeological and documentary, is of the castle in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. There was an inner bailey containing a stone hall, a solar and chapel, with a tower on the east side and a gatehouse on the west side giving access to the large outer bailey. Pottery from the 11th to 13th centuries was found on the site. A full report on the 1977-79 digs (with reference to earlier ones) by Prof.J.Ivens on behalf of Queens University Belfast can be read HERE. (pdf) and one by the Council for British Archaeology HERE (pdf)
 The distinctive profile of a Norman arch, now in a local house and said to have come from the castle. |  The pristine base of the castle exposed during the dig by Queen's University, Belfast 1977. It was subsequently re-covered. | click on images to enlarge |
Chris Day (Historian)
Chris was a professional historian who lived in Deddington and was Chairman of the Deddington & District History Society for many years. The text of his lecture on the Castle and its grounds can be found HERE and the accompanying 17 slides HERE. The latter have been scanned from his old technology acetate sheets for overhead projectors. The hard copy text and slides are on the bookshelf in the Parish Archive
His deeply researched and extensive article from the 2022 edition of the Cake & Cock Horse can be read HERE (pdf) with grateful thanks to the editor, Helen Forde, and committee of the Banbury Historical Society.
A tribute to Chris containing details of his long historical research career can be read HERE
Richard Ivens (archaeologist) writing for Oxoniensia 49
Quote: "A large undifferentiated enclosure with a substantial motte at its east end. This is a very unusual form and unique in the Oxfordshire area…. Its great size and early date may suggest that it was of more than ordinary importance, in fact a baronial castle"
Richard's article from the 1984 edition can be read HERE (pdf) with grateful thanks to the Editor and Committee of the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. Richard was a student of Martyn Jope, a well known archaeologist (as his Royal Academy biography recounts) who had carried out two earlier diggings betyween 1945 and 1950. However, all these excavations were not fully published. Richard, when he finalised the 1977-1979 excavation, incorporated Jopes’ notes on the latter's second excavations and had a draft ready but he found further material from the the earlier Jope excavations when he was clearing Jope’s house in Oxford after his wife, Margaret, died in 2004. Following his untimely death from Covid-19 in May 2020, Richard’s partner, Dr Isobel Lisboa, intends to collate, record and send all the artefacts and records to the Ashmolean Museum.
Walter Meagher (Botanist)
More information on the Castle Grounds' flora & fauna compiled by Walter can be found HERE and HERE
Even more information
The Deddington News carried an article in September 1977 by Andrew MacGregor
The Banbury Guardian had a photo and article in 1977
The Oxford Mail carried an article on 7 May 2013 by Trevor Rowley
St George's Chapel Archives, Windsor, chose the Seal of Sir William de Dive on a Deed relating to the castle in the 1360s, as their image of the month in this article published in November 2025.
English Heritage ‘The earthworks …lie in a rural location to the south east of the village of Deddington. No stonework is visible above ground today, but the site is nevertheless a striking one owing to the scale of the earthworks – the rampart is 15m (49 ft) high in places – and the size of the enclosed area.’