Castlefacts³

Whitwood Ferry Hill

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte)

There are earthwork remains

Name	Whitwood Ferry Hill
Alternative Names	Fairy Mount; Fairies Hill; Castle Hill
Historic Country	Yorkshire
Modern Authority	Wakefield
1974 Authority	West Yorkshire
Civil Parish	Wakefield

A motte, now only 22 ft high, with faint trace of a ditch round it, and a small brook to the south which may have been utilized for the bailey ditch, are all that remains of Castle Hill, Ferry Hill, on Fairy Mount. The site, by the Calder at Whitwood, is partly occupied by a mineral railway (VCH, 1912). "Fairies Hill", a large mound at SE 3986 2489 answers the description above, but appears to be entirely natural. There is certainly no trace of a ditch round it now (F1 RWE 13-NOV-63). De-Scheduled (English Heritage De-Scheduling Amendment 27/1/93). (PastScape)

Natural mound allegedly utilised as a motte. Now descheduled. (PastScape)

A recent small evaluation at Fairies Hill in Whitwood confirmed the identification of this site as a Norman castle. One evaluation trench was placed to clip the edge of the motte and examine its construction. This trench confirmed that the earthwork was built from differing layers of material in the same way as the construction of Hastings Castle is shown on the Bayeaux Tapestry. (Constable 2007)

Gatehouse Comments

Is this the site of a river crossing point as the name suggests? There is no apparent landscape evidence for this being a crossing point but the landscape is considerable changed by coal pits and associated spoil. Roger (Peitevin) is recorded in Domesday book as holding Whitwood as a mesne lord in 1086. The township is described as Robert de Lacy's demesne in the foundation charter of Pontefract Priory. The authenticity of this charter is doubtful, but if the statement about Whitwood's status was correct, the township may have been resumed into demesne by the end of C11. Holmes has suggested that alternatively the grant to Roger Peitevin may have been abortive. This doubt about the township's early tenural history means that on present evidence it cannot be decided who was responsible for the construction of the earthwork castle at Fairies Hill. There appears to be no basis for the statement that the township was in Roger le Peitevin's tenure in 1166. A sherd of C12 or C13 pottery was found there in 1977. Recorded as a castle site by Leland.While there is good archaeological evidence some mottes were built in layers it is not at all certain that what is shown on the Bayeaux Tapestry is an example of this. Indeed it may well be that no motte at all is shown at Hastings but that what is pictured is men digging out a ditch below the existing Iron Age promontory fort bank, surmounted by a fence, with the 'layers' being merely decorative infill, the from dictated by the nature of embroidery.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)

52725

County Historic Environment Record

www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=2097&resourceID=105

OS Map Grid Reference	SE398248
Latitude	53.7188987731934
Longitude	-1.3984899520874
Eastings	439860
Northings	424890