CASTLE HILL MOTTE

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DESCRIPTION

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Motte and bailey surrounded by extensive subsidiary earthworks, possibly built from 1143. There are also remains of a moated site. The motte stands to a height of approximately 11.8 metres above the bottom of its surrounding ditch. It is conical in shape with a near circular top measuring 12 metres north to south and 13 metres east to west. The base of the motte measures 55 metres north to south and 54 metres east to west and the ditch, 10 metres wide and 1.4 metres deep on the east side and 15 metres wide and 3.4 metres deep on the north side. The bailey on the north west measures 80 metres north east to south west and 40 metres north west to south east.

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NZ 3666 2089 Castle Hill (NAT) Castle mound and baileys (NR). (1)

Castle Hill, to the south of Bishopton, consists of a motte or mount, 38 ft high, surrounded by a ditch with a high outer bank, flanked by two lines of lower banks on the west side and a single line on the east, north and south of the mount are a series of higher banks and ditches, ending with rounded lines of lower defences at either end of the site. Two causeways lead north and east from the earthwork to the modern road. No traces of masonry are to be seen. `Roger Conyers... is referred to as having fortified his castle ...... about 1143.' Whether there was here, as seems possible, a previously existing fortress cannot be said. (2-2a)

NZ 36672090. A fine example of a motte and bailey with very
extensive earthworks surrounding it. The motte stands to a height of approximately 11.8 m above the bottom of it's surrounding ditch; it is conical in shape with a near circular top measuring 12 m north to south and 13 m east to west. The base of the motte measures 55 m N-S and 54 m east to west and the ditch, 10 m wide and 1.4 m deep on the east side and 15 m wide and 3.4 m deep on the north side. The bailey on the north west measures 80 m north east to south west and 40 m north west to south east; its north west side is bounded by a ditch approximately 16 m wide and 2.7 m deep, its north east side by a bank 4 m wide and 0.4 m high and its south west side by a tri-vallate earthwork overall width circa 25 m. To the north west of the bailey and joined to it by a slight causeway and centred at NZ 3659 2098 is a triangular area which may possibly have been a second bailey. There is no masonry to be seen and no surface finds were made. None of the ditches are wet. (3)

The earthworks are correctly described by Authority 3 and have been resurveyed at 1:2500. (4)

A portion of the north end of the causeway (about 10 m) has been destroyed due to new houses being built. (5)

Minor changes only since previous report, published survey (25")
revised. The weak enclosure attached to the south-east side of the main work probably constituted a burgess. (6)

NZ 368 209. Bishopton motte and bailey possibly the house fortified in 1143. (7)

NZ 366 210. Castle Hill. Scheduled. (8)

The site was visited by RCHME during a survey of scheduled
monuments in County Durham.

These earthworks are as described by Authorities 2 and 3. However, in addition a substantial moat lies on the east side of the site (contrary to Authority 6) crossed by the two previously recorded causeways. The moat survives up to some 70 m wide in places and is 1.5 m deep. Prominent feeder channels have tapped the Bishopton Beck at NZ 3670 2075, and flow in to the broad moat. The precise outflow point is unclear, but may have been obscured by recent housing development at NZ 3663 2105. The feeder channels survive as ditches up to 2.3 m wide and 0.6 m deep. The causeways which cross the moat are no more than 1.3 m high. The west defences of the site run parallel with the Beck, and consist of a double ditch system, the outermost ditch of which would also seem to have been linked to the Beck and flooded. Within the east part of the north bailey lie the turf-covered remains of a rectangular building up to 28 m long by 9.5 m wide and surviving up to 0.4 m high. A second incomplete foundation abuts the north perimeter of this bailey standing up to 0.5 m high. (9)

NZ 3667 2090. Motte and bailey castle 400m SE of Bishopton.
Scheduled RSM No 20970. (10)

Listed by Cathcart King. (11)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1954

( 2) edited by William Page 1905 The Victoria history of the county of Durham, volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England (I C Gould) 1905 Page(s)353-4

( 2a) General reference

Surtees, R, 1816. History of Durham

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JHO 17-SEP-53

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F2 RL 12-JAN-62

( 5) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

LS 25" (R McLaren 29.11.65)

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F3 RE 18-NOV-81

( 7) by Derek Renn 1973 Norman castles in Britain

1973 Page(s)111

( 8) by Department of the Environment, Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings London 1978 List of ancient monuments in England: Volume 1, Northern England; Volume 2, Southern England; Volume 3, East Anglia and the Midlands

1978 Page(s)23

(9) Field Investigators Comments

Peter Topping/03-DEC-1991/RCHME: Durham SAMs Project

(10) English Heritage 1995 County list of Scheduled Monuments : March 1994

(11) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

1 Page(s)134

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