Kyme Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Newton Kyme

In the civil parish of Newton Kyme Cum Toulston.
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: SE46604494
Latitude 53.89854° Longitude -1.29230°

Kyme Castle has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Although the visible remains of Newton Kyme Castle are limited in extent, it is believed that further remains are preserved beneath the surrounding landscaped gardens. The castle lies adjacent to the village of Newton Kyme and surrounding earthworks, and is one of several medieval sites within the area. The remains at Newton Kyme retain important evidence for the study of fortified manors within the wider medieval landscape of the north of England. The monument includes parts of a fortified manor house lying in the grounds of Newton Kyme Hall, situated on a raised river terrace to the south of the River Wharfe. The remains comprise a well preserved length of medieval wall, orientated north to south. The wall is 15m in length, 1.2m thick with a return to the west at both ends. A first floor lancet window is located to the south part of the wall and a corbel on the east side indicates that this was an interior face to the structure. The stub return walls at both ends further indicate that the wall also extended westwards. There is a pointed arch doorway at the north of the wall which, along with the upper masonry around and to the north of it, appears to be a later rebuild, and may date from the Victorian garden landscaping. Further remains of the manor are believed to be preserved around the monument but their full extent cannot, as yet be determined. A square headed window serving as a memorial is located in the churchyard to the south and may have originated from the manor house. It is thought that the manor may have been founded by the de Kyme family in the 13th century and fortified in the 14th by the Talbot family. The manor house may have gradually fallen into decay in the subsequent centuries and was finally granted to Thomas Fairfax after the Civil War in the 17th century. The castle remains are Listed Grade II. (Scheduling Report)

Castle ruins. Probably C13. Magnesian limestone. Thick wall approximately 10 metres in length and 3 metres in height. Pointed archway and lancet window to right. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1013302, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 26951
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1166953
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 54966.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY20697.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 21
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 531 (possible)
  Wakefield Historical Publications, 1979, Samuel Buck's Yorkshire Sketchbook p. 284
  Pevsner, N., 1959, Buildings of England: Yorkshire: West Riding (London) p. 378
  Kirk, G., 1953, The Parish Church of St Andrew, Newton Kyme p. 5-6
  Speight, Harry, 1902, Lower Wharfedale (London: Elliot Stock) p. 363-4 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Dennison, Ed and Richardson, Shaun with contributions by Erik Matthews, 2007-8, 'Recent Work on some North Yorkshire Castles' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol. 21 p. 157-166
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Kirk, G., 1953, The Parish Church of St Andrew, Newton Kyme p. 5-6 (quoting Roger Dodsworth, 1627)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 302
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 32 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Richardson, S. and Dennison, E., 2007, Kyme Castle, Newton Kyme: Photographic Survey and Archaeological Observations (Ed Dennison Archaeological Services report 2004/247.R04 for English Heritage) online copy
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 610 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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling	Listing	I. O. E.
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