Rothwell Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE34222827
Latitude 53.74969° Longitude -1.48254°

Rothwell Castle has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle, and also as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A small castle or fortified manor house built by Ilbert de Lacy (11th century). Fragments of walling remain (Batty: Pevsner). Only a weathered and irregular column of rubble masonry, apparently the remains of a newel stairway, survive. A large amount of building debris is visible in the ploughed land surrounding it but no ground plan can be deduced. These are no earthworks associated with the structure (Field Investigators Comments–F1 RL 21-NOV-63). There was a substantial stone-built, manor-house at Rothwell in 1341, which served as the principle administrative centre for the northern half of the honour of Pontefract, but this was recorded as ruinous in 1485. In 1487 it was leased by Henry VII to Roger Hopton on condition that he erect a hall and parlour with chamber and kitchen; a single bay of this later, timber-framed house was dismantled by West Yorks County Arch. Unit in 1977 (Faull and Moorhouse). (PastScape)

Comments

Hunting lodge of honour of Pontefract. Used by King John in 1212 and Edward II in 1319 and 1323. Probably built on site of 'hall' of Harold, an Anglo-Scandinavian thegn. The Rothwell and District Historical Society states a small motte was constructed here, which is entirely possibly, but it is not clear what their evidence is for this suggestion. There is a tendency for some authors to think all Norman castles had mottes although at least a quarter did not. King made no reference to such a structure and only considered this a possible castle site (generally King's 'possible' is closer to the Gatehouse 'doubtful' category). Certainly a C13/C14 fortified manor house, likely to be a C11/C12 timber castle.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005792, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wy1172
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 52655.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1977.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
Books
- Rothwell and District Historical Society, 2006, The History of Rothwell Castle and medieval life (Leeds RDHS Press)
  Wrathmell, S. (ed), 2003, Rothwell: The Medieval Manor and Manorial Mills (Archaeological Services (WYAS) Publications 3)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 531 (possible)
  Faull, M.L. and Moorhouse, S.A. (eds), 1981, West Yorkshire: an archaeological survey to A.D. 1500 Vol. 2 p. 488
  Pevsner, N., 1959, Buildings of England: Yorkshire: West Riding (London, Penguin) p. 423
  Batty, J., 1877, History of Rothwell p. 43, 118
Periodical Articles
- Moorhouse, Stephen, 2006, 'Building in the Medieval Landscape' Yorkshire Buildings The Journal of the Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group Vol. 34 p. 42-
  Wheldrake, Dave, 2003, 'Fieldwork at Rothwell Castle' Archaeology and Archives in West Yorkshire Vol. 17 online copy
  1978, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1977' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 22 p. 184 online copy
Guidebooks
- Rothwell and District Historical Society, nd (c. 2006), Rothwell Castle Project online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk Yorkshire Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 92 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk Yorkshire Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 101 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 Yorkshire (London: English Heritage) p. 113 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 Yorkshire (London: English Heritage) p. 115 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 135 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 125 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 126 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 133 online copy
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 770-1 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.

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