The beautiful village with a hidden ancient castle and dungeon near Manchester

22.01.2022 - 10:43 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

The picturesque village of Malpas has pretty black and white timber framed houses lining its streets, along with a raft of independent shops, cafes and pubs.

But there's also a hidden historic gem at the very heart of this beautiful village, which community leaders are hoping to make more accessible to visitors in the future.

For at the very highest point of the historic village is the Castle Hill Motte - the moat where once a tower would have stood, with a hidden dungeon beneath, thought to have been built back in the 11th century, along with a number of castles on the Cheshire ridge to protect the English borders from the Welsh.

READ MORE: The beautiful village that looks like an Italian resort

You can see the grass-covered motte if you walk through the graveyard of the imposing 14th century St Oswald's Church - with a circle of gravestones atmospherically placed all around its perimeter.

But there is no public access to the Castle Hill top - the closest you can get is by peering across the local bowling green, private land that you can't get through.

In years gone by, the motte top had even been used as an extraordinary extension of the bowling club for "ladies bowls", while the ancient scheduled monument has long been a source of intrigue to visitors to this part of the world.

Renowned Manchester writer and historian Fletcher Moss visited Malpas back in 1901 and wrote of the 'grass-grown site of the dungeon and castle of the Norman Baron... reserved as a place on which the village maidens may dance and play'.

For years the site was privately owned, but after a chance enquiry from local resident Chris Whitehurst, the Castle Hill Motte is now in the ownership of the local land trust, who have big plans to make

Tags: Moss beautiful Provident and Britain Italy Manchester

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