Castlefacts³

Stokesley Castle Hill

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Other/Unknown), and also as a Possible Fortified Manor House

There are no visible remains

Name	Stokesley Castle Hill
Alternative Names
Historic Country	Yorkshire
Modern Authority	North Yorkshire
1974 Authority	North Yorkshire
Civil Parish	Stokesley

Jackson writes that Castle Hill is/was a place name adjacent to the site of manor house which was sometimes called castle.

At each end of the wide town street is a green. Near High Green, at the east end, is the manorhouse of Stokesley, which once deserved the name of a 'castle.' (Quart. Sess. Rec. (N. R. Rec. Soc.), viii, 12) It had fallen into some decay when the estate was sold by the Peirson family, but was restored by the next owner. (Graves). (VCH)

Gatehouse Comments

This is an entirely feasible site for a castle, by church and river crossing. Stokesley was not an insignificant place in the middle ages being granted a fair in 1223. However, the lords of the manor (the Baliol and de Eure families) had other estates with castles. The manor house probably fitted most definitions of a fortified manor house. Was the 'castle hill' a motte of a precursor small timber castle or merely a hill in the demense of the manor house? Topographically the former seems more likely in this case, unfortunately the likely area of the 'hill' (east of the manor house) has been built over.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record

www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3080

OS Map Grid Reference	NZ526086
Latitude	54.4702796936035
Longitude	-1.1898900270462
Eastings	452600
Northings	508620