Rod Collins

Newhouse Castle, or Newhus Castle or for that matter Neuhus (more recently termed Newsham) stood on the site of Newhouse, or Newsham Abbey.
Earlier in the year I was fortunate enough to be taken around the site and now hope to find out as much as possible about the background of the castle

According to Monasticon Anglicanum: a history of the abbies and other monasteries, hospitals, frieries, and cathedral and collegiate churches with their dependencies, in England and Wales Newhus Abbey was ‘founded in the place where the castle formerly stood’

As the Abbey dates circa 1143 the castle was clearly earlier and was in the possession of a knight called Peter of Goxhill who founded the abbey itself during the reign of King Stephen.
It was an Adulterine Castle, that is to say, quote; ‘an unlicensed private castle built by a baron primarily during the Anarchy of 1135 to 1154 during the reign of King Stephen’ and possibly / probably of timber construction

Below you’ll see a picture of a moat which was once part of the abbey complex and was possibly part of the original castle moat ?

The Newhouse Castle Moat ?

It looks a possibility that Peter of Goxhill had already left his castle when he gave the land to the church as the Bishop Alexander of Lincoln in his confirmation of the gift of the abbey stated that it came with ‘the court where his castle had been’
This suggests two things to me, the abbey was not on the exact location originally occupied by the castle and that the castle was no longer extant at the time of the gift. That is, of course, merely presumptive based on the wording.

Talking of wording here’s some Latin related to the above for Neville:
cum curia ubi castellum suum fuit

Old Pete seems not have have been adverse to a little chicanery and he may have got ‘confused’ at times as to just who actually owned what piece of land !
He seems to have been involved in the political intrigue of the time and had his fingers in a lot of pies (not necessarily all his own) so it strikes me that the land gift probably had a lot more to it than a charitable nature toward the church !

There’s a paper written by Paul Dalton which looks very interesting but frustratingly I cannot get full access to it but I’ve got a couple of snippets which mention Peter of Goxhill’s dwelling with his ‘castle and enclosure’ and ‘ half his demesne land in Newhouse’.
He goes on to mention indications of the de-commissioning of a castle and the transfer of land for use of the abbey

If this all seems a little fragmented, and it will if you’ve got this far, it’s because there seems to be little in the way of real information out there.
I’ve pieced together this article and surmised what I have done based on snippets taken from many sources - I hope it makes some sense and goes a little way to bringing some useful information together in one place.

If you know of anything or have any ideas (related to the castle itself rather than the abbey), comments or opinions please do leave a comment (please no large blocks of text copy and pasted from other sites as it causes problems with Google and the like - it’s fine to rewrite or paraphrase though - thank you)

You may also be interested in the other articles on the site: Newsham Bridge which is next to the site and of course Neuhus Abbey itself.

I should like to thank Chris Keyworth for giving me a guided tour of the site and initially alerting me to the existence of the castle - it was a great day out and a privilege to stand in a place so steeped in history - it makes the mind sway when you just stand there and think what’s gone before.
I should also say that any mistakes in the article are entirely my own.

All the best
Rod