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YORKSHIRE FORTIFICATIONS 1066 to 1900

Additional aerial photography kindly provided by www.webbaviation.co.uk where there can be found many more wonderful images of the Yorkshire countryside, and the features it contains. My sincere thanks to www.old-maps.co.uk for their generous co-operation in permitting the reproduction of sections of their collection of 19th century maps. All copyright remains with www.old-maps.co.uk
Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, the county of Yorkshire has seen various types of fortifications during several periods of its history. This is an attempt to catalogue many of them. There will undoubtedly be some omissions, and some entries which may be erroneous. With this kind of work errors can creep in, though every effort has been made to ensure as much accuracy and totality as possible. If there are any obvious omissions, I would be grateful for any help with corrections, provided that the sources are reliable and verifiable. Email to: yorkshirehistorian@hotmail.com
Some sites, to those who know, will seem out of place, but I have taken as my guide the original, traditional county boundaries rather than the modern county sub-divisions necessitated by the contingencies of 20^th century local government. The 'old' county was sub-divided into three 'ridings'; the East Riding, Estreding, shown within as ER; North Riding, Nortreding, shown as NR; and West Riding, Westreding, shown as WR. The term 'riding' has its roots in the old Scandinavian 'thrithjungr,' meaning one third. Ordnance Survey co-ordinates have been included (where known), as have the nearest centres of population. as have the nearest centres of population, to assist those who may wish to find some or the more remote locations on a map. It would have been easy to call this 'The Castles of Yorkshire,' but it would then be necessary to define 'castle'. Much simpler, for me anyway, to include places and sites which never were castles, places which were built purely for the defence of towns, such as walls, gates and ditches, and entitle them all as fortifications. Included are the ubiquitous motte and bailey's, adulterine castles - those built without permission or license, fortified manorial houses, English Civil War - ECW - siege lines and temporary earthen artillery fortlets, and the massive gun platforms of coastal defence artillery forts of later periods. Shown with many of the inclusions are representations of the heraldry of some of the families and indivi duals that were associated with the sites. These are as accurately rendered as research will permit, though with many things, these too are not infallible. What does become apparent, using this means, is the way the county was apportioned between a few massively powerful feudal lords, especially in the first few decades following the Conquest. It must be stated here that 'heraldry' as we know it, did not exist much before the first half of the 12^th century, nor was it used as is nowadays generally accepted. There are plenty of sites online that provide in-depth histories of this fascinating and decorative subject, enough for me not to enter into such a vast arena without losing track of the main purpose of this catalogue. There is needless to say, far more information available on many of the included sites, so much so that many of them would demand their own individual pages. Histories, plans, illustrations and photographs are available if the researcher knows where to look. The sources are vast, some more reliable than others, those that must be mentioned however are : the Itinerary of John Leland, a traveller and observer writing eye-witness descriptions in the 16^th century; the Victoria County History series, with out which any such endeavour would be virtually impossible; Castellarium Angicanum by D. J. Cathcart-King; The Moated Sites of Yorkshire, by H. E. J. Le Patourel; the many Yorkshire Archaeological Journal reports; and far too many others to be mentioned here. My apologies are proffered to all those works, and the writers of them, who I have failed to mention, they are truly, legion! Text compiled and edited by Richard Hayton Heraldry rendered by Richard Hayton BIBLIOGRAPHY The following were the main sources of information, which enabled the collation of this work. Archaeological Sites in Humberside Loughin & Miller Burke's Extinct Peerage Burke's Peerage Burke's General Armoury Castellarium Anglicanum D.J. Cathcart-King Castles of the North Riding William M. I'Anson Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 22 1913 Castles and Abbeys of Yorkshire William Grange Castles and Abbeys of England in 2 vols. W. Beatie Complete Guide to Heraldry Arthur Charles Fox-Davies Bonanza Books 1978 David & Charles Book of Castles Plantagenet Somerset Fry David & Charles 1980 ISBN 0 7153 7976 3 Dougdale's Visitation of Yorkshire English Castles (3^rd Edition 1976) R. Allen Brown Heraldry - Sources Symbols and Meaning McGraw-Hill Book Co 1976 ISBN 0 354 04157 6 Historical Atlas of east Yorkshire Edited by S. Neave & S. Ellis University of Hull Press 1996 ISBN 0 85958 652 9 History of Holderness Poulson King's England - Yorkshire North Riding Edited by Arthur Mee Hodder and Stoughton King's England - Yorkshire East Riding with York Edited by Arthur Mee The Caxton Publishing Co Ltd. King's England - Yorkshire West Riding Edited by Arthur Mee Hodder and Stoughton Lives of the Kings and Queens of England Edited by Antonia Fraser Book Club Associates 1975 Medieval England Colin Platt Book Club Associates 1978 ISBN 0 7100 8815 9 Medieval Warfare H.W. Kock Bison Books 1978 ISBN 086124 008 1 Memorials of the Wars of the Roses W.E. Hampton Allen Sutton 1979 ISBN 0 904893 03 0 Moated Sites of Yorkshire H.E.J. Patourel Medieval Archaeology Monographs London 1973 National Trust Book of Castles Paul Johnson Book Club Associates 1978 New and Complete History of the County of York Thomas Allen London 1831 Ordnance Survey Landranger Series Ordnance Survey Crown copyright Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire Joseph Foster 1874 Round the Yorkshire Castles Alfred Taylor Yorkshire Evening Post 1962 Some Historic Mansions of Yorkshire in 2 vols. W. Wheater Timber Castles (London 1992) R. Higham & P. Barker Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire Thomas Langdale 1822 Victoria County Histories of the east Riding Victoria County Histories of the North Riding Visitation of Yorkshire 1584-5 & 1612 Yorkshire's Ruined Castles County History Reprint J.L. Illingworth

Designed by Richard Hayton 2006
email richard@yorkshirehistory.com