Middleham Burgus Enclosure (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE12618788
Latitude 54.28641° Longitude -1.80772°

Middleham Burgus Enclosure has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Not in PastScape in a manner Gatehouse can identify. North Yorkshire HER reference to town which does not mention defences in its online form.
It is not clear as to what King was referring and his use of the term 'possible' is almost always restricted to doubtful sites. Nothing in the modern or C19 map suggest a boundary marker. There is a Kirkgate street name but this may be a derived from the Danish gata (street - as in other Yorkshire towns). The town has developed but not massively nor in a manner to suggest destruction of earlier features. What can be said is that if there were defences of the town or even part of the town these were so slight as to be readily removed. However, Gatehouse suspects King was really suggesting the outer bailey of Middleham Castle, located east of the castle (the town is north of the castle) which now contains a stable for race horses. This almost certainly is a place showing a continuity of purpose (stabling) dating back 900 years rather than a early site of the town.
Map reference for parish church.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY15750.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 268
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 535 (possible)

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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.
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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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