Aldborough Studforth Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Stuteville; Stodart; Stodhart; Vetus Burgus; The Stadium

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE40656596
Latitude 54.08795° Longitude -1.38004°

Aldborough Studforth Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Outside the south east corner of Isurium is a raised platform or earthwork 70 yds. long and 10 yds. wide, called the Stadium. It is thought to have been the place for the celebration of games and races (Lawson-Tancred, 1948)).
In the same vicinity is a bowl-shaped depression interpreted by Collingwood as an amphitheatre but shown on this plan as an embanked enclosure (Collingwood, 1930).
A partial section of its northern 'bank' in 1935 showed that it was apparently natural (YAJ, 1959).
On the south side of the Stadium is Studforth Hill which in Leland's time resembled a castle. Although it has since been ploughed over, it still has traces of a bailey and is listed as a motte and bailey (VCH, 1912).
In its present form, Studforth Hill has no resemblance to a normal castle mound or motte. The remains, however, when associated with the Stadium and the "bowl-shaped depression", indicate a former enclosure of some strength which seems to amount to a type of ring motte or ring earthwork. It is probable that part of the scarp forming the raised platform of the Stadium is, in fact, the north end of an oval shaped ring work, and that Studforth Hill is the southern end. The bowl-shaped depression is between these banks and would seem to be the remains of the cratered interior after ploughing had levelled the east and west sides. This ploughing has resulted in the lateral scarping and the general raising of the ground level giving a platform effect. There are no traces of a separate bailey or of any ditch (F1 EC Waight/27-JUN-1963/OS Archaeology Division Field Investigation).
Studforth Hill is a ploughed-out motte, probably the Vetus Burgus of the Pipe Rolls 1205-6 (and Rot.Chart 44) (Renn).
A castle is documented at Aldborough in 1158-75, when it was in royal hands, and from 1175-1205 when it was in baronial hands, at which time it was called Stuteville. It was confiscated by the Crown in 1205 (Allen Brown).
The crescent shaped remains of Studforth Hill and a scarp slope that marks the northern end of the feature known as the Stadium are both visible as earthworks on historic and recent air photos and on lidar-derived images. at SE4065 6586. The mound or hill measures approximately 61m across. It overlooks to the north an area labelled as the Stadium on the Ordnance Survey map of 1893. The scarp slope appears to demarcate the northern and eastern side of the Stadium. The interior contains medieval ridge and furrow. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1003133, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ny436
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 55199.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY18585; MNY18543.

Books
- Turner, Maurice, 2004, Yorkshire Castles: Exploring Historic Yorkshire (Otley: Westbury Publishing) p. 92, 102, 109-10, 174, 234
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 16
  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. 512
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 88
  Collingwood, R.G. and Richmond, I., 1969, The Archaeology of Roman Britain (London: Methuen)
  Lawson-Tancred, M.E., 1948 3edn, A guide book to the antiquities of Aldborough and Boroughbridge and a short account of their history (Boroughbridge : J. Topham & Son) p. 18
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 45
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
Periodical Articles
- Martin Wainwright, 2011 Aug 17, 'Archaeologist digs into grandad's tale to uncover lost Yorkshire amphitheatre' The Guardian (news report on Roman results from archaeological investigation) online copy
  Butler, Lawrence, 1994, 'The Origins of the Honour of Richmond and its Castles' Château Gaillard Vol. 16 p. 69-80 (Reprinted in Liddiard, Robert, (ed), 2003, Anglo-Norman Castles p. 91-103 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press))
  Jones, M.U., 1971, 'Aldborough, West Riding, 1964: excavations at the south gate and bastion and at extra-mural sites' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 43 p. 39-78
  Brown, R. Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' The English Historical Review Vol. 74 p. 249-280 (Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 90-121) view online copy (subscription required)
  1959, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 40 p. 5
  Jessop, C.M., 1850, 'Observations respecting Aldborough' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 5 p. 74-5 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.)
- The Great Roll of the Pipe for the seventh year of the reign of King John Michaelmas 1205 (Pipe Roll Society 57)
  Hardy, T.D. (ed), 1837, Rotuli Chartarum, 1199-1216 (Record Commission) p. 44 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 560
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1909, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 4 p. 27 online copy
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
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 577-8 online copy

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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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