The mutilated earthwork remains of Odell Castle, a Motte and Bailey with a stone keep was described as a ruin in the 16th century by Leland. A new residence was built in 1623, using the remains of the keep and was altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present residence was built 1962. All remains of the castle have been obliterated by buildings and garden landscaping. (Pastscape)
Privately owned, not open to the public.
This castle, sometimes written Woodhill, stands on the N. bank of the river Ouse, N.W. of Bedford. It was once a seat of the Barons de Wahul, a family distinguished for their nobility and their broad acres in the reign of Edward I. Odell Castle remained with them till the reign of Henry VIII., when, by the marriage of the heiress of Anthony, Lord Wahul, with Richard Chetwode, of Oakley, Staffordshire, it came into the possession of this family, and was afterwards sold by them to a family named Alston, who built a new house upon the old site. Leland (temp. Henry VIII.) speaks of the “strange ruins of Odell Castle”. There is not much remaining of the Wahuls’ abode, and but few traces of architectural work except in some buttresses and battlements. The position, on an eminence, has a fine prospect over the river Ouse and the adjacent country. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)
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