MONUMENT NO. 59430

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DESCRIPTION

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A Medieval complex including a motte and bailey castle, additional earthen banks and ditches, fishponds, and a moated site situated immediately east of the castle bailey,surviving as earthworks. The motte is 35 metres in diameter and rises above an earthen platform 50 metres north to south by 35 metres east to west, defined by a moat up to 10 metres wide and 2 metres deep. The bailey lies immediately to the south est of the motte and its platform and measures 90 metres square north to south and east to west, and is defined by a dry moat up to 2 metres deep and between 10 and 15 metres wide. The moated site lies 250 metres east of All Saints' church and includes a sub rectangular island about 40 metres square, defined by a moat. A modern fishpond lies to the east of the moated site. A Ha Ha is also present. Scheduled.

DETAIL

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(SE 70173869) Castle Hill (NR) (Site of a Castle of the Askes)(NR) Moat (NR)
(SE 70253864) Moat (NR)
(SE 70393859) Moat (NR) (1)

A motte occupying one corner of a square platform which it nearly covers, and surrounded by a square ditch. It is 14 ft high and the top 60 ft in diameter. The motte is outside what was evidently the bailey, now the parsonage garden - the ditch being 40 ft wide and 6 ft deep. (Centred SE 70223866). Traditionally known as the site or mansion of the Aske family. (2)

Castle, possibly with shell keep. (3)

A ditch, visible on APs, extends from the SE corner of the churchyard in a southeasterly direction, then turns E for a short distance, in alignment with the S side of the moat to the E.(4)

A complicated and unusual complex of moated enclosures and a motte, rather than a motte and bailey. Adjoining on the south is a ditch (visible on APs) at the edge of the flood plain of the River Derwent. It is marsh-filled and is retained on the SW/S side by a broad well-spread counterscarp bank. There are no indications that it ever extended beyond the present eastern limit which is U-ended, and it may have served as a fishpond. Surveyed at 1:2500.

The published features at SE 70323872 probably represent the remains of two additional marsh-filled fishponds, but they are somewhat mutilated by rubbish dumping. Published survey (25") revised. (5)

Additional reference. (6)

Ashlar and window-tracery on island of west moat which now has a modern house built on it probably original house moat. (7)

Additional references. (8-10)

SE 7029 3866. Motte & bailey castle, fishpond & moated site N & E of Aughton church. Scheduled RSM No 23828. A medieval complex including a motte and bailey castle, additional earthen banks and ditches, fishponds, and a moated site situated immediately E of the castle bailey. The medieval church S of the motte is believed to have been a component of the complex. The motte is 35m in diameter and rises above an earthen platform 50m N-S by 35m E-W defined by a moat up to10m wide and 2m deep. A fishpond is dug into the N end of the platform, 23m x 8m x 0.5m. Immediately external and running parallel to the W arm of the moat are two earthen banks and a heavily silted ditch. The banks are between 0.3m and 0.5m high, both are 3m wide. The ditch, which is external to the banks, is 3m wide and 0.15m deep. The N end of the banks and ditch is truncated by a hedge and the S end is obscured by a graveyard.

The bailey lies immediately to the SE of the motte and its platform. It measures 90m square N-S and E-W and is defined by a dry moat up to 2m deep and between 10m and 15m wide. Much of the moat's E arm has been infilled apart from a 30m long section at its S end. The inside edge here and the S arm have been cut back and lined with brick to form a ha-ha. The interior of the bailey has been levelled and landscaped to create the gardens of Aughton Hall, which stands within it. To the N of the moat an area of boggy ground indicates the formersite of at least one medieval fishpond, which was used as a potato dump and infilled some years ago. Further moat-like ditches are situated to the N and S of the motte and bailey. The S ditch is 10m wide and 2m deep and originally extended through the area now occupied by the churchyard to link up with the ditch external to the motte around the moat's W arm. The N ditch remains visible as a cropmark only.

The moated site lies 250m E of All Saint's Church. It includes a sub-rectangular island about 40m square, defined by a moat whose N and W arms are largely dry and infilled. They are 12m wide and up to 0.5m deep. The S and E arms have been recut to create a large fishpond; these arms are 15m wide and up to 2m deep. Aerial photographs indicate that this recutting was quite substantial.
A modern fishpond 38m long N-S by 9m wide E-W and 1.5m deep lies to the E of the moated site.(11)

The motte and bailey, and various other moat ditches described by the previous authorities were mainly seen as earthworks on air photographs but a couple had been infilled and ploughed over. The only feature not described above which was recorded from air photographs was a ditch paralleling the ditch which extends from the SE corner of the churchyard. The previously unrecorded ditch is centred at SE 7019 3857, about 60m long, and probably forms another phase of the moat complex on this site. (12)

Listed by Cathcart King. (13)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1854

( 2) edited by William Page 1912 The Victoria history of the county of York, volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)25

( 3) General reference

Clarke, GT, 1884. Medieval Military Archit England 1 Page(s)146

( 4) Aerial photograph

APs (541/30/3047-8 17.5.48)

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 DS 07-MAR-72

( 6) by Neil Loughlin and Keith Miller 1979 A survey of archaeological sites in Humberside carried out for the Humberside Joint Archaeological Committee

1979 Page(s)41

( 7) by H E Jean Le Patourel 1973 The moated sites of Yorkshire

The Society for Medieval Archaeology monograph series1 (1966) - no.5 Page(s)17-8, 109

(8) by John L Illingworth 1970 Yorkshire's ruined castles : an account of their history, asssociations and architecture with a chapter on the fortified houses of the county

Page(s)124

(9) Scheduled Monument Notification

DOE (IAM) SAMs 1988 5 Humberside

(10) General reference

RCHME Yorks East Riding Mss 3.12.79 (including photos)

(11) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage Scheduling Amendment 22/7/94

(12) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SE 7038/4 (17005/24) 08-JUL-1997

(13) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

2 - 1983 Page(s)513

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