Mow Cop Castle facts for kids
Mow Cop Castle is a unique building located in Mow Cop, Cheshire, England. It isn't a real castle built for defense. Instead, it's a type of building called a 'folly'. A folly is usually a decorative building, often made to look like something grand, like a castle or a ruin, just for fun or to make a landscape more interesting.
Mow Cop Castle sits on a hill that marks the border between two English counties: Cheshire and Staffordshire. It's also a special building known as a Grade II listed building, which means it's protected because of its historical importance.
History of Mow Cop Castle
The area around Mow Cop Castle has a long history. People have found signs of a very old camp from prehistoric times on this hill. This shows that people lived here many, many years ago!
The castle itself was built in 1754. A man named Randle Wilbraham, who lived nearby at Rode Hall, decided to build it. He wanted a fancy summerhouse that looked like an old medieval fortress with a round tower. So, he created the 'castle' you see today.
The area around Mow Cop was also famous for something else: quarrying. People dug up high-quality millstones here. These special stones, called 'querns', were used in water mills to grind grain into flour. Even ancient querns from the Iron Age have been found at Mow Cop.
In 1937, Mow Cop Castle was given to the National Trust. The National Trust is a charity that looks after special places in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In the same year, more than ten thousand Methodists gathered on the hill. They met to remember the very first Primitive Methodist camp meeting that happened there.
Mow Cop and its folly are also important in a famous book. They are central to Alan Garner's novel Red Shift.
Images for kids
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Mow Cop Castle
