Henderskelfe Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castle Howard; Hinderskelf; Henderskelf; Hinderskelfe; Hinderskell

In the civil parish of Henderskelfe.
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: SE71517006
Latitude 54.12144° Longitude -0.90737°

Henderskelfe Castle has been described as a certain Tower House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Henderskelfe Castle, built in the reign of Edward III by the Greystoke family, was in ruins in 1359. It was rebuilt in 1683 but was destroyed by fire in 1693 (Whellan 1859; VCH 1923; Pevsner 1966).
The remains of Hinderskelfe Castle, together with the village (SE 77 SW 11) and the church (SE 77 SW 12) was destroyed to make way for Castle Howard house in the years following 1699. Barley's redrawn central portion of the 1694 estate map (see SE 77 SW 11) shows the relationship between the castle and the present Castle Howard which is shown as a superimposed pecked outline. The true position of the former castle would therefore be at SE 7151 7006 (as shown on OS 6" 1958) and not at the original Ordnance Survey 1889 location at SE7163 6996. Barley added that if the castle had been located at the latter position it would have interfered with the making of the formal gardens which proceeded alongside the building of Castle Howard house (Barley, 1978). (PastScape)

This was held by the barons of Greystock. In 1359 it was in ruins but was possibly rebuilt as a tower house since Leland described it as a fine quadrant of stone having four toures buildid castelle like. This was burnt down in the early 18th century. (North Yorkshire HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 59915.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY2215; MNY2216.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Castle Howard official site (nothing on medieval castle)
  Historic Houses Association
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 27
  Jackson, M.J., 2001, Castles of North Yorkshire (Carlisle)
  Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 19, 140
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 530
  Pevsner, N., 1966, Buildings of England: Yorkshire: North Riding (London) p. 106-7
  Page, Wm (ed), 1923, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 2 p. 108, 110-11 online transcription
  Whellan, T., 1859, History and topography of the city of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 581 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Barley, M.W., 1978, 'Castle Howard and the village of Hinderskelfe, N. Yorkshire' Antiquaries Journal Vol. 58 p. 358-60
Guidebooks
- Several guides books for Castle Howard have been published most of which give only very slight information on Henderskelfe Castle and the medieval manor and owners.
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 543, 550
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 57-8, 64-5 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Time Team (Mike Aston et al), 2003, March 16 (1st broadcast), 'Castle Howard Yorkshire' Time Team TV Programme (Time Team, a Videotext/Picture House production for Channel 4) view online
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 385 online copy

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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.
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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.

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