Arkholme with Cawood Chapel Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Arkholme with Cawood.
In the historic county of Lancashire.
Modern Authority of Lancashire.
1974 county of Lancashire.
Medieval County of Lancashire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SD58937184
Latitude 54.14075° Longitude -2.63017°

Arkholme with Cawood Chapel Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The motte at Arkholme is of particular importance as being one of the group of early post-conquest (late 11th century) mottes established along the Lune valley. These sites were all of strategic importance allowing control of movement along the river valley. More importantly, however, was their role in imposing and demonstrating the new post-conquest feudal order on the area. Of the wider Lune valley group this is one of the best preserved examples. A lengthy period of occupation of the site has been indicated by excavation which revealed evidence of two periods of construction, and use of the motte.
The monument at Arkholme comprises a truncated cone, the remnants of a medieval motte castle, situated on a commanding position dominating a slight bend in the River Lune overlooking an old river crossing. The motte lies in Arkholme churchyard immediately NE of the church, the vestry of which overlies the monument slightly on its SW. The bailey, which was originally attached to the motte, is now very indistinct as it has been considerably disturbed by burials and activities both within and beyond the churchyard. Because of the damaged state of this bailey it is not included in this Scheduling. The churchyard wall runs around the motte on the NW, N and E sides and acts as a retaining wall. (Scheduling Report)

Medieval motte surviving as an earthwork, with traces of probable former bailey. Chapel hill is a conical motte, 110ft in diameter at the base, 45ft across the summit and circa 20ft high situated in Arkholme churchyard. There was no distinct traces of ditch around the mound although the sunken footpath to the north west probably represented part of its former course. A raised earthen platform covering about half an acre stood adjacent to the motte and may have acted as a bailey. a small excavation on the summit of the Motte in 1904 revealed two distinct phases, one below the turf and another 9ft lower. The lower deposit may represent a possible ringwork phase. Further excavations in 1973-4 confirmed the presence of two phases and suggested the upper phase was incomplete. Medieval pottery and a Neolithic or Bronze Age scraper were also found. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1012695, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13411
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 43036.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 629.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog and Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
  CastlesFortsBattle.co.uk
  CastleUK.net
  BBC Lancashire (Brief talk from Dr Andrew White)
Books
- Grimsditch, Brian, Nevell, Michael and Nevell, Richard, 2012, Buckton Castle and the Castles of the North West England (University of Salford Archaeological Monograph 2) p. 104-5
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 22
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 244
  Gibson, Leslie Irving, 1977, Lancashire Castles and Towers (Dalesman Books)
  Gardner, W., 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks:- Lancashire South of the Sands' in Farrer, William and Brownbill, J. (eds), VCH Lancashire Vol. 2 p. 521-3 (plan) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Higham, Mary, 1991, 'The Mottes of North Lancashire, Lonsdale and South Cumbria' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 91 p. 79-90 (reprinted in Crosby, A.G. (ed), 2007, Of names and places: selected writings of Mary Higham (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society and the Society for Name Studies) p. 81-91) online copy
  Harrison, P.A., 1977, 'Arkholme 1976' Contrebis Vol. 5 p. 40 online copy
  White, A.J., 1975, 'Arkholme Excavations' Contrebis Vol. 3 No. 1 p. 25-9 online copy
  Moorhouse, S., 1971, 'Excavations At Burton-In-Lonsdale: A Reconsideration' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 43 p. 85, 89-90, 98
  White, H.M., 1905, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 5 p. 309 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 206 online copy
Guidebooks
- White, A.J., 1998, Norman Castles of Lunedale A History Trail (Lancaster City Museums) (Leaflet)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 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

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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.
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.
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