Huntington Castle

Description

Huntington Castle, motte with two baileys to NE. The motte rises some 30 ft above the level of the bailey and is about 124 ft in diameter at the base. The inner bailey is approached by a causeway on the E side which probably marks the site of the former gatehouse. The bailey was enclosed by a curtain wall apparently carried up the motte on both sides; foundations of this wall remain in most of the circuit and one fragment, some 20 ft high, is still standing to the W side. Towards the N are the remains of a tower, apparently 13th century. The outer bailey may have been enclosed in 1403 when the castle was repaired. In 1460 the castle was returned as worth nothing, and had presumably been abandoned, but in 1561 one tower was still used as a prison (RCHME/Banks 1869). Huntington Castle, a strongly-constructed motte with two baileys on the NE. It is situated upon locally-high ground above steep slopes to a stream on the NW, with a re-entrant valley before it to the NE and a shallow hallow-way down to the stream below the motte on the SW. The ground to the SE is roughly level pastureland. The motte rises 16.0m above outside ground level and 9.0m from the bailey. It has a base diameter of 38.0m and a summit diameter of 5.0m, now much mutilated and dug over. The inner bailey has an internal diameter of 60.0m N-S by 30.0m E-W. It has been extensively quarried into for the stone foundations of buildings it once contained. It is bounded by a rampart, 10.0m to 15.0m in width, 1.5m to 3.0m in height internally, which overlooks a large ditch, 17.0m in width, 2.5m in depth, the base of which is some 10.0m from the rampart top. The ditch, together with an outer bank, 10.0m in width, 2.5m maximum height externally, is carried around the outside of the motte. Both ditch and outer bank have collapsed and fallen away on the steep slopes above the stream on the NW side and the outer bank is no longer traceable on the NE side. The outer bailey measures 90.0m across, NW-SE, by 75.0m transversely and is bounded by a scarp overlooking a ditch and outer bank. The ditch, except for a short stretch on the N side where it is 0.3m deep, has been reduced to a terrace - like feature. The outer bank is from 0.5m high, on the NE, to 1.5m high on the SE. Passing through the SE side of the outer bailey, and protected on the W side by a bank, 6.0m wide, 0.8m high, is a hallow-way, which leads onto a projection of the outer bank into the ditch of the inner bailey. This is diagonally opposite a break in the inner rampart and suggests it was the site of a bridge or causeway. The inner rampart was crowned by a curtain wall which ran up from both sides onto the crown of the motte. One fragment remains on the W side, which is 5.5m long, 2.0m thick and about 8.0m high. On the N side, on the line of the curtain wall stands part of the W wall of a tower. It is 4.0m long, 2.0m wide and stands about 6.0m high. In the W face is a garderobe chute and into the E face, steps descend to below ground level. Stone-work of both walling and tower is of roughly-coursed random rubble (Field Investigators Comments F1 ASP 06-FEB-75). (PastScape)