Worsbrough Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Highstone Hill

In the civil parish of Barnsley.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Barnsley.
1974 county of South Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE346050
Latitude 53.54071° Longitude -1.47867°

Worsbrough Castle Hill has been described as a Uncertain but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Worsbrough Castle Hill - SE 346050. Hilltop/promontory location line of sight Stainborough, like which De Lacy Domesday. Castle Hill 1841 Tithe Award. Now open space/playground, the roughly oval site appears scarped to south and south-west, with faint indications of possible damage banking on that side. A 1778 print shows a very large castellated structure, clearly a Gothic folly, extending along the ridge including Castle Hill. This is referred to in the 1817 enclosure act for Worsbrough Common, although the ambiguous wording ("castle ruins and castellated buildings") leaves open the possibility of earlier remains then also present. Wilkinson in his 'History of Worsbrough' and William Smith in "Old Yorkshire vol. I" both suggest fortification evidence in the town's name Smith detecting 'wark' i.e. fortified building, and Wilkinson seeing the name as meaning 'fortified place of refuge' with the 'burh' element. (Sneyd)

SE 347050 "An almost certain hill fort (Iron Age) considerably damaged" at Worsbrough Common. (PastScape)

Comments

The archaeological database records for an Iron Age hillfort do not appear to be aware of the large C18 folly on the site, these databases also place the site slightly to the east, presumably based on the location of the Castle Hill name on the OS map rather than the location the name refers to. Despite these reports it seems to Gatehouse it was unlikely this was the site of an Iron Age hillfort. It also appears quite unlikely there were any medieval buildings here. The place-name element 'brough' probably means hill here rather than 'burh' (That is berga rather than burh ).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 52436.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 02847/01.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Andy Hemingway
Books
- Sneyd, Steve, 1995, The Devil's Logbook Castles and Fortified Sites around South Yorkshire (Hilltop Press) p. 19
  Hogg, A.H.A., 1979, British hillforts: an index (British Archaeological Reports British Series 62) p. 144
  Challis, A.J. and Harding, D.W., 1975, Later Prehistory Trent to Tyne (British Archaeological Reports British Series 20.2) p. 47
  Greenwell, N., 1881, 'West Riding Place-names' in Smith, Wm (ed), Old Yorkshire Vol. 1 p. 216 online copy (dated place-name study)
  Wilkinson, J., 1872, Worsbrough: Its Historical Associations and Rural Attractions (Barnsley)

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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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