Hunsingore Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hall Orchard Hill

In the civil parish of Hunsingore.
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: SE42855317
Latitude 53.97283° Longitude -1.34821°

Hunsingore Hall has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Remains of a medieval hall located on a raised river terrace overlooking the River Nidd at the southern end of the village of Hunsingore. The monument occupies a knoll, the south and west sides formed by the natural lie of the land and the east side formed by a deep hollow way. The knoll has steep sides and a flat top which measures 80m east to west by 60m north to south. The foundations of the medieval hall survive as a sub-rectangular shaped earthwork up to 1.5m high in the centre of the site. To the south of the site of the hall there are terraces which are the remains of the formal gardens. There are further earthwork remains of ancillary buildings throughout the site. The hall is thought to have been built on the site of an earlier defensive earthwork or motte commanding the ancient river crossing. Little is known of the early history of the monument. The manor of Hunsingore was granted to the Knights Templar preceptory at nearby Ribston in 1217 and it may be that the earliest defensive site was a castrum of the order. After the dissolution of the preceptory in 1536 the manor was granted to Henry Goodricke. It was some time after the 1540s that the Goodricke family home was built on the site, probably utilising existing buildings. However, the hall did not last long and it is thought that it was destroyed during the Civil War in the 1640s. (Scheduling Report)

A large oblong artificially shaped mound, having many points of resemblance to a motte, must be the site of the castrum of the Templars mentioned in a deed. It was the site of the hall of the Goodricke family which was probably destroyed during the Civil War (VCH; Speight; YAJ, 1883). The mound on which the site falls appears to be a natural hillock. The top has been artificially flattened and a small, rectangular platform raised to receive the Hall (F1 RWE 20-JUN-63). The site has been listed as a low, angular motte (Renn). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1018133, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 29544
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 55147.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY18175.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Abaroth's World
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 532 (possible)
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 207
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 45
  Speight, H., 1894, Nidderdale p. 156 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 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))
  Wheater, 1883, 'Ribston and the Knights Templars' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 8 p. 296 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1880, The Builder Vol. 38 p. 251
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. 599 online copy

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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.

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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