Hartland Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hertiland'

In the civil parish of Hartland.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS258244
Latitude 50.99272° Longitude -4.48310°

Hartland Castle has been described as a Masonry Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

In 1201 Alan of Hartland was granted licence to crenellate his house (domus) of Hertiland' nominally because of the danger from the notorious pirate William de Marisco based on Lundy Island. There are castle field names in Hartland parish (although these may relate to a lost Iron Age fort) and this, combined with misunderstanding about licences to crenellate, has lead to the suggestion there was a castle in Hartland. This Alan of Hartland was probably a member of the Dinham family who, at this time, had a complex genealogy with two competing branches. The court scribe may have used the de Hartland suffix to clarify the complexities of several Alan Dinhams although, from 800 years later, it has obscured the situation. 19th century genealogies of the Dinham family are not reliable. It has been suggested that Blegberry, a C16/C17 house may be at or close to the licenced domus but this suggestion is weak. Extensive modern research by Stephen Hobbs details the manorial history and he suggests a location 'on the perimeter of the present settlement of Hartland'. Hartland was a high status landscape with deer parks, a monastic foundation and a (failed) borough and it must have had a high status manor house probably dressed up with martial symbols, such as the battlements. However, the lack of any remains, particularly the lack of a moated site, suggests the house was not one of any great strength. The Dinhams moved their caput to Kingskerwell in south Devon in the C13 so the manorial site was not developed and it may have been used as the base for the borough founded in 1290. (Stephen Hobbs)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1201 March 24 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 897011.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 19486.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Stephen Hobbs, Hartland -So Where is the castle?
Books
- Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 136-43
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 121 (possible)
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 355
  Chope, R.P., 1940, The Book of Hartland (Exeter: Devonshire Press)
Periodical Articles
- Hobbs, S., 2006, 'The Saxon Boundaries of Hartland Hundred' North Devon Archaeological Society Newsletter Vol. 12
  Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 142-9
  Higham, R.A., 1982, 'Early Castles in Devon' Château Gaillard Vol. 9-10 p. 101-116
  Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 138 p. 233
  Chope, R.P., 1902, 'The Early History of the Manor of Hartland' Report of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol. 34 p. 418-54 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Hardy, T.D. (ed), 1837, Rotuli Chartarum, 1199-1216 (Record Commission) p. 103 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Kleineke, H., 1988, The Dinham Family in the Later Middle Ages (doctoral thesis, University of London)
  Higham, R.A., 1979, The Castles of Medieval Devon (University of Exeter PhD Thesis) p. 148-51 Downloadable from EThOS

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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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