Mount Ferrant Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Burythorpe; Mountferaunt

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE79546390
Latitude 54.06491° Longitude -0.78616°

Mount Ferrant Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A motte and bailey castle situated on a narrow promontory projecting westwards from the foot of Birdsall Brow. This spur, with steep scarps on three sides, offers a naturally defensive position and only slight additional fortification was required. Because of the topography of the site, the motte and bailey has an unusual form but the essential elements of this type of castle, a main stronghold and one or more outer courts, have been identified. The spine of the promontory rises gradually from east to west and its highest point, a slight knoll near the western end, served as the motte; although there is no evidence that the top of the knoll has been artificially raised, it was made more defensible by a 2.5m deep ditch on the eastern side and a corresponding but slightly shallower ditch on the western side. To the east of the motte, the promontory is divided into three baileys by earthworks cut transversely across the ridge. The western bailey is at a slightly lower level than the motte and measures 50m by 50m across, its eastern edge is marked by a 5m high scarp to the base of a ditch. This ditch is 25m wide and its 2m high eastern scarp rises to the middle bailey, a relatively flat area measuring 100m east-west and up to 60m north-south. The eastern bailey is separated from the middle bailey by a slight ditch and measures 200m east-west by 100m north-south; the ground falls quite steeply to the east where the promontory joins the foot of the Wold scarp. Here the existing field boundary incorporates the outer defences of the bailey; these take the form of a 2m high earthen bank with a 10m wide outer ditch which lie across the narrow neck of the promontory. The construction of the castle is attributed to Nigel Fossard. There is documentary evidence that the castle was constructed largely of wood. It must have fallen out of use by 1150 when it was dismantled and timbers were given to monks for their building works at the newly founded abbey of Meaux. The destruction was completed, in around 1173, by Henry II to punish the young Lord William Fossard. Commanding views over the surrounding countryside are possible from the highest point of the castle; it overlooks the Roman road to Malton which runs just over 100m to the west of the castle and which will have remained as a strategically important routeway in the medieval period. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1011603, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 20527
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 59719.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY2031.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- LeaveningOnline
Books
- Turner, Maurice, 2004, Yorkshire Castles: Exploring Historic Yorkshire (Otley: Westbury Publishing) p. 243
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 63
  Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 21
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 513
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 250
  Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield) p. 125
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 2
Periodical Articles
- 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)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Clay, C.T. (ed), 1952, Early Yorkshire Charters, Vol. 9: The Suteville Fee (Leeds: Yorkshire Archaeological Society Extra Series 7) p. 89, 90
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 544, 545, 568
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 58 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. 580-1 online copy
  Bannister, N., 1994, The Birdsall Estate, Yorkshire: Historic Landscape Survey 3 Vols. (Unpublished Report: N. Yorks. SMR)

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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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