Thorganby Giants Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Giant Hill

In the civil parish of Thorganby.
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: SE69283962
Latitude 53.84821° Longitude -0.94840°

Thorganby Giants Hill has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Medieval promontory partial ringwork survives as earthworks. It lies on a natural spur between the floodplains of the River Derwent, lying to the east and a tributary named the 'Old Derwent' to the south. The earthworks form an arc on the north-west side of the promontory. The massive external ditch is 2m deep relative to the ground surface and the inner bank is 2m in height. Geophysical survey revealed the ditch extends further eastward from the earthworks. (PastScape)

The remains would appear to fall into the category of earthworks classified by King & Alcock as partial ringworks, rather than a motte and bailey. Situated on a natural SE spur between the flood plains of the River Derwent and the Old Derwent, which afford substantial protection on two sides, the work consists of a well-spread crescentic rampart with a massive external ditch on the NW side. This extends almost across the neck of land, except for a gap 25.0m wide, probably original, near the E flank. The ditch is 1.9m deep externally and 3.4m internally, while the rampart, much reduced by ploughing, now only attains a maximum height of 0.9m. The slightly greater inner ground level, approximately 0.6m above the outer, can be attributed to natural soil accretion. (PastScape ref. Field Investigators Comments–F1 DS 10-MAR-72)

A magnetometer survey was carried out over Giant Hill, Thorganby Grange, N. Yorkshire, for inclusion in the Humber Wetlands Project. The aim was to search for any buried archaeological features associated with the extant earthwork, believed to date no later than the 11th century AD. The data yielded disappointing results, dominated by a system of modern drains, and showed few archaeological anomalies. (Summary of Bray 1998)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 57998.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY17571.

Books
- Van de Noort, R. and Ellis, S. (eds), 2000, Wetland Heritage of the Hull Valley. An Archaeological Survey (Humber Wetlands Project Centre for Wetland Archaeology University of Hull) p. 194-195
  Williams, Alison, 1996, 'Castles and moated sites' in Neave, Susan and Ellis, Stephen, An Historical Atlas of East Yorkshire (University of Hull Press) p. 32-3
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 532 (possible)
  Allison, K.J. (ed), 1976, 'Thorganby' VCH Yorkshire: East Riding Vol. 3 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Ramm, H.G., 1965, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 41 p. 331
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Bray et al, 1998, Giant Hill, Thorganby Grange, N. Yorkshire; Report on Geophysical Survey, December 1997 (Ancient Monuments Laboratory report 14/98) online copy
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 629 online copy

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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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