Sutton upon Derwent Giants Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Sutton Upon Derwent.
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: SE71044862
Latitude 53.92885° Longitude -0.91957°

Sutton upon Derwent Giants Hill has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The monument is the Giant's Hill motte in Sutton Wood and includes a raised motte enclosed by a moat. The circular motte is 4m high and 23m in diameter. The sub-rectangular moat enclosing it is 1.5 to 2m wide and 1m deep; it is seasonally wet. A pit about 1m wide and deep has been dug into the summit of the mound. Little is known about the history of the monument, although it has been suggested that it was built to guard the nearby crossing of the River Derwent. (Scheduling Report)

About 500 yd. south of St. Loys, in Sutton wood, is the so-called Giant's Hill, which may be the site of a small moated homestead. (VCH ref. Ex inf. Royal Com. on Historical Monuments, York, 1974)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1008041, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 21192
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 59495.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3897.

Books
- Neave, Susan, 1991, Medieval Parks of East Yorkshire (Univeristy of Hull) p. 52
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 532 (possible)
  Allison, K.J. (ed), 1976, 'Sutton Upon Derwent' VCH Yorkshire: East Riding Vol. 3 p. 173 online transcription
  Loughlin, Neil and Miller, Keith, 1979, A survey of archaeological sites in Humberside carried out for the Humberside Joint Archaeological Committee p. 51
  Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p. 116
Periodical Articles
- Ramm, H.G., 1965, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 41 p. 331
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.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. 553 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.
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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.
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.

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