En un regard
Le château en bref
Manwar Ings is the name given to the remains of a motte-and-bailey castle about one kilometre north-east of the village of Swineshead, in the Boston district. Set within a fenland landscape that is now intensively farmed, the site stands out for its concentric earthworks, which remain clearly legible and make it a rare survival in this agricultural area.
The castle is thought to have been built in the 12th century by the de Gresley family, lords of Swineshead, who also founded the nearby Cistercian abbey of Swineshead; the two high-status sites thus illustrate the lordly and religious organisation of the local medieval landscape. It is mentioned in documentary sources of the late 12th and 13th centuries, and fragments of artefacts found nearby indicate occupation until at least the 14th century.
The motte, a circular platform now almost flat, rises nearly 2 m above the fields; a slight inner bank may mark a former wall or palisade. It is surrounded by a dry ditch about 15 m wide, a ring-shaped bailey 7 to 15 m wide, and then a second ditch 7 to 10 m wide. An earthen causeway crosses the inner ditch on the east, facing a rise that may mark the site of a gatehouse. Brick shelters were inserted into the motte during the Second World War, and ploughing has truncated the east side of the outer ditch.
