Mirfield Castle Hall Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE21102044
Latitude 53.68004° Longitude -1.68192°

Mirfield Castle Hall Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Castle Hall Hill motte and bailey castle is situated adjacent to the nineteenth century parish church of St.Mary in Mirfield. The bailey is occupied by the church and its graveyard, both of which are in current ecclesiastical use, and this area is not at present included in the scheduling. The motte, which would have carried a timber keep, is a conical mound c.10m high and with a diameter of c.20m surrounded by a ditch c.8m wide and 5m deep. On the east side the ditch is divided by a causeway which joined the motte to the bailey where ancillary and garrison buildings would have stood along with pens for stock and horses. The castle was built between 1086 and 1159 either by Svein son of Alric or by Adam his son. Its purpose was to oversee some of the estates of the Honour of Pontefract of which these two men were successively the most powerful knights. After Adam's death without male heirs in 1159, the estate was divided and the castle reduced in status. It was not abandoned, however, and was known as the castle of Mirfield throughout the Middle Ages. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1009929, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13295
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 51224.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 5.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Dave Weldrake, 2010, A tourist's guide to interesting archaeological sites in West Yorkshire Castle Hall, Mirfield (West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service)
Books
- Turner, Maurice, 2004, Yorkshire Castles: Exploring Historic Yorkshire (Otley: Westbury Publishing) p. 243
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 63
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 310 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 522
  Faull, M.L. and Moorhouse, S.A., 1981, West Yorkshire Archaeological Survey to AD 1500 (West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council) Vol. 2 p. 455-8
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 356
  Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield) p. 129
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 21-2
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
Periodical Articles
- Constable, Chris, 2006, 'Earthwork castles in West Yorkshire' Archaeology and Archives in West Yorkshire Vol. 23 p. 5-6 online copy
  Speight, Sarah, 2004, ''Religion in the Bailey: Charters, Chapels and the Clergy' Château Gaillard Vol. 21 p. 271-80
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 215 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.)
- Yorkshire Inquisitions 62 p. 22
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 133 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 124 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 124 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 132 online copy
  Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses Online
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 767 online copy

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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.

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