Laxton Castle

According to an early 20th-century report by the British Archaeological Association, the site is notable not only as "the most striking specimen of a mount and court stronghold" in the area, but also for "the nearly perfect condition of its two courts", which made of it a valuable resource for study.

The property on which the ruins rest was also the site of a 16th-century manor house known as Laxton Hall.

[2] The second wave of construction of the castle may have followed the appointment of de Caux to Hereditary Keeper of the Royal Forests of Nottingham and Derbyshire, although the extent of renovations undertaken by King John, who seized the castle for several years in 1204, is unknown.

The greatness of the outer court, the formidable character of the defences of the base court, the placement of the keep-mount on the edge of the steep natural escarpment on the northern side, and the evidence of the guarded track ways to the place, all tend to show the importance of Laxton Castle in the fighting days of its early existence, when feudal lords cared only for what they could get and hold, and had little thought for the rights of their neighbours.In 1408, the Roos family acquired the property,[3] The castle was already in ruins by the 16th century when the family constructed a three-gabled brick manor house there, dubbed "Laxton Hall."

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the property frequently changed hands before coming in 1788 to Charles Pierrepont, 1st Earl Manvers, whose family retained it until 1952, when it was sold to the Ministry of Agriculture.