Bewerley Castlestead (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Bewerley.
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: SE16586458
Latitude 54.07688° Longitude -1.74808°

Bewerley Castlestead has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

There is now no visible evidence of any former earthwork at Castlesteads. Reported pottery finds in the vicinity have never been substantiated, and any Roman association with the site appears to be more traditional than factual (F1 RWE 08-AUG-63).
Castlestead, shown on OS first edition 6" (1854) as a roughly oblong mound circa 100 by 80 ft. with what appears to be the inner lip of a surrounding ditch on two sides, is postulated by Villy as a Medieval castle mound or motte rather than a supposed Roman fort. Speight, apparently speaking as an eye witness, says that previous to the house there was a mound looking like a large tumulus, the top slightly hollowed and enclosed on all sides by a great agger. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 50662.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY7191.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 529
  Elgee, Frank and Elgee, Harriet Wragg, 1933, The Archaeology of Yorkshire (London: Methuen) p. 135
  Speight, H., 1894, Nidderdale p. 435 online copy
  Grainge, W., 1863, Nidderdale p. 64-5 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Villy, F., 1939, The Bradford Antiquary Vol. 30 p. 385-6
  Raistick, A., 1933, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 31 p. 217
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.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. 580 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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio