Issue 100 – November 2014
CASTLE POWER by Stephen Guy, West Derby Society THE fortress stood on a mound overlooking forested countryside and a village which would grow over the centuries. There is some debate over when West Derby Castle was built. Victorian historians thought it dated from the days of AngloSaxon king Edward the Confessor. It is now believed to have been constructed in the decades after the Norman Conquest, probably before 1102 when powerful local baron Roger de Poitou was banished. This was a time when England was unstable after the Conquest. Knights jostled each other for power and influence – it was an era of instability and uncertainty. As aerial photographs from the 1920s show, West Derby Castle featured a moated mound with an adjacent fenced yard or bailey. A rather fanciful 1810 engraving (pictured) shows the dilapidated castle overlooking cattle in a field. The castle was described as ruined in a 1326 document – it had been abandoned for almost a century by this time – although the mound survived until about 1827.
Writing nearly 50 years later, eminent local historian Sir James Picton says some oak timber and hewn stones were discovered. A piece of oak, which becomes very hard over time and is almost indestructible, was made into a desk for an antiquary. The item was inscribed with a brass plate saying: “This desk was made from part of an oak beam that was dug out from the ruins of Edward the Confessor’s castle at West Derby, Lancashire.” It is believed the desk was destroyed when Liverpool Museum was gutted during
the 1941 Blitz. Liverpool Castle was completed around 1235 and troops transferred from West Derby Castle, which was then abandoned. Generations of local people pillaged the site – West Derby Courthouse, built in 1586, features recycled pieces of ancient oak. Part of the muniment room door frame includes a blackened, rock-hard piece of timber with a series of grooves indicating it came from somewhere else. It is possible that this was
brought from West Derby Castle at a time when oak was in very short supply. Queen Elizabeth, lord of the manor, ordered the Courthouse to be built from stone – she needed all the new oak she could get for warships. Two years later her navy destroyed and dispersed the huge Spanish Armada sent to conquer England. Join the West Derby Society at its next meeting 7.30 pm on Wednesday 19 November at Lowlands, 13 Haymans Green, Liverpool L12 7JG.