Aldbrough 'castle' (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Aldeburgo

In the civil parish of Aldbrough.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of East Riding of Yorkshire.
1974 county of Humberside.
Medieval County of Yorkshire East Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: TA245387
Latitude 53.82997° Longitude -0.11122°

Aldbrough 'castle' has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Situation: The most likely site for the castle is a minor ridge-top to the north-west side of Aldbrough village, on the Withemwick Road where the place-name ‘Castle Hill’ appears on OS maps.
Description: No extant remains on the ground; documentary evidence only.
Documentation: The church and tithes of a castle at Aldborough, (de castello, de Aldeburgo), mentioned in a charter as being granted to the monks of St. Martins, Albermarle by King Stephen in 1115. (Creighton 1998)

The tradition that there was a castle at Aldbrough is based on a misreading of a charter of 1115, the castle referred to there being almost certainly that of Skipsea. Castle hill was named in the mid 19th century, and Castle Park, a housing estate recently built in 1991, continues the tradition (E.Y.C. iii, pp. 30-2; Poulson, Holderness, ii. 3, 5, 24). (VCH 2002)

Comments

Aldbrough is the supposed site of a castle. It is supposed to have been in existence in 1115 as a grant made by Stephen Earl of Albermarl to the monks of St Martin de Albermarl of tenths of the castle. The C11 Church, a saxon foundation, is at TA245387 and the site was the principle residence of the Powerful Saxon Thane Ulf.
Reputed to have been washed out to see centuries ago. However a 'Castle Hill' place-name is shown 500m West of the church in a position which would be entirely usual for an early motte (TA238388). Has also been suggested that moat and earthworks at Bewick (Tup Hill - TA23293942) may be site but this is unlikely since Bewick is a distinct settlement from Aldbrough and was held by the de Melsas (Meaux) family.
Given map reference for parish church.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 15.

Books
- Kent, G.H.R., 2002, 'Middle division: Aldbrough' VCH Yorkshire: East Riding Vol. 7 online transcription
  Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 16
  Bulmer, 1892, History and Directory of East Yorkshire p. 301
  Sheahan, J.J., and Whellan, T., 1855, History and topography of the city of York, the Ainsty Wapentake and the East Riding of Yorkshire Vol. 1 p. 357
  Poulson, G., 1841, The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness Vol. 2 p. 3, 5 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.)
- Farrer, W. (ed), 1914-16, Early Yorkshire Charters Vol. 3 p. 30-3 no. 1304 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. 541 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 >		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