Bewerley Castlestead

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte Ringwork)

There are no visible remains

NameBewerley Castlestead
Alternative Names
Historic CountryYorkshire
Modern AuthorityNorth Yorkshire
1974 AuthorityNorth Yorkshire
Civil ParishBewerley

There is now no visible evidence of any former earthwork at Castlesteads. Reported pottery finds in the vicinity have never been substantiated, and any Roman association with the site appears to be more traditional than factual (F1 RWE 08-AUG-63).

Castlestead, shown on OS first edition 6" (1854) as a roughly oblong mound circa 100 by 80 ft. with what appears to be the inner lip of a surrounding ditch on two sides, is postulated by Villy as a Medieval castle mound or motte rather than a supposed Roman fort. Speight, apparently speaking as an eye witness, says that previous to the house there was a mound looking like a large tumulus, the top slightly hollowed and enclosed on all sides by a great agger. (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

Speight description suggests this was a ringwork rather than a motte. Rather isolated from medieval settlement but this area, high in the Yorkshire Dales, was an area of dispersed settlement and the site may have been central to a dispersed manor, it may also have been close to a medieval mill.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSE165645
Latitude54.0768814086914
Longitude-1.7480800151825
Eastings416580
Northings464580
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 529
  • Elgee, Frank and Elgee, Harriet Wragg, 1933, The Archaeology of Yorkshire (London: Methuen) p. 135
  • Speight, H., 1894, Nidderdale p. 435 online copy
  • Grainge, W., 1863, Nidderdale p. 64-5 online copy

Journals

  • Villy, F., 1939, The Bradford Antiquary Vol. 30 p. 385-6
  • Raistick, A., 1933, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 31 p. 217

Other

  • Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses Online
  • Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 580 online copy