Clifton Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Clifton upon Ure; Masham; Clifton super Yoram

In the civil parish of Clifton On Yore.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of North Yorkshire.
1974 county of North Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire North Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE21818426
Latitude 54.25356° Longitude -1.66673°

Clifton Castle has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House, and also as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry footings remains.

Description

The manor of Clifton anciently belonged to the Lords Scrope of Masham. Geoffrey le Scrope obtained license to make a castle of his house at Clifton in the reign of Edward II (1307-27 AD). Clifton Castle was erected in 1806 on the site of the ancient castellated mansion (Whellan).
Running N from a quadrangle of buildings on the NW of the Castle, is an old stone rubble wall believed to be a survival from the original castle (Listed Report)
Castle erected 1320. Written evidence held by owners. There are no remains other than the portion of walling previously noted. This is 17m long x 2.5 x 0.8m and it cannot be put into context with the original castle. (Field Investigators Comments–F1 RE 04-JAN-73) (PastScape)

Clifton Castle, the residence of Lady Cowell, stands in a well-wooded park which slopes down to the river. It is an ashlar-built house in the classical style of the early 19th century. The site is that of the older castle, the foundations of which form part of the cellars of the present building. A drawing made in 1805 shows a portion of the ruins with a buttress of two stages, a large pointed archway and other details; it was described by Leland as a 'house caullid Clifton, like a pile or castelet.' On the south side of the house, outside the area of the present cellars, but on a level with them, is a stone-built well, which formed the original water supply of the castle. (VCH)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1317 Sept 25 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 52280.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY15521.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Historic Houses Association
Books
- Jackson, M.J., 2001, Castles of North Yorkshire (Carlisle)
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 29
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 421
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 532 (possible)
  Pevsner, N., 1966, Buildings of England: Yorkshire: North Riding (London, Penguin) p. 122
  Page, Wm (ed), 1914, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 1 p. 344-6 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 213 online copy
  Whellan T, 1859, History and topography of the city of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 384 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 407 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1972, The Archaeological Journal Vol. 128 p. 188
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1903, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward II (1317-21) Vol. 3 p. 26 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1908, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 2 p. 2 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 588-9 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio