Mow Cop Castle
| Mow Cop Castle | |
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National Trust | |
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 Mow Cop Castle | |
| Grid reference: | SJ858573 |
| Location: | 53°6’46"N, 2°12’48"W |
| Information | |
Mow Cop Castle is a folly in Staffordshire, in the village of Mow Cop which lies across the border of Staffordshire with Cheshire.
The "castle" today belongs to the National Trust and is a Grade II listed building.[1]
History
The area around Mow Cop was once nationally famous for the quarrying of high-quality millstones for use in water mills. Excavations at Mow Cop have found querns dating back to the Iron Age and traces of a prehistoric camp have been found here.
In 1754 the landowner, Randle Wilbraham of nearby Rode Hall, determined to build in the midst of the quarrying landscape an elaborate summerhouse. The result was Mow Cop Caslte – built to resemble a mediæval fortress and round tower.
The Castle was given to the National Trust in 1937. The same year over ten thousand Methodists met on the hill to commemorate the first Primitive Methodist Camp Meeting there.
Though visitors were originally allowed inside the folly the area surrounding it has been fenced off due to an instance of suicide off the cliff edge. On the turn of the millennium in the year 2000 a large fire was lit beside the folly as part of a network of communicating fires across the country.
In literature
Mow Cop and its folly are central images in Alan Garner's novel, Red Shift.
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