Editing Whitwick (section)

===Castle===
Whitwick had a [[motte and bailey]] castle, although no remains are left. It was probably built originally during the spate of rapid castle building by William the Conqueror following the spate of rebellions leading up to the harrowing of the north. There appears to be evidence of a timber castle and later stone castle. The timber castle was more likely in place in the 11th century and to have been later held by 'Henricus de Bello Monte, Consanguineus Regis' (Henry Beaumont, blood-relative of the king). In 1320 he was granted a licence to crenellate the structure.<ref name="gatehouse">{{cite web |work=The Gatehouse Website |title=Whitwick Castle, Coalville |url=http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/1790.html |date=25 March 2015 |access-date=1 April 2015}}</ref> The building work resulting from this licence may have provoked an attack by Sir John Talbot. Beaumont's claim to the land was from his wife's inheritance and, it seems, Talbot felt he had a claim to Whitwick. Twenty years later the capital message was worth nothing.<ref name="gatehouse"/> This stone castle was later held by the Earls of Leicester, though it was recorded as being ruinous by 1427. The foundations are said to have been visible at the end of the 18th century and a wall was still to be seen on the north side in 1893.

It is important to note that the word '[[gatehouse]]' is likely a corruption of '[[guardhouse]]'.  A gatehouse is usually an entrance to a walled city or a castle entrance.  In the case of Whitwic Castle, the castle is in the centre of the town and thus there is no 'gatehouse'.

The mound retains the title of Castle Hill and is surmounted by a 19th-century [[folly]], with a castellated roofline. This was built in 1846 by a local landowner, Joseph Almond Cropper, as almshouses for the poor.