West Witton Penhill Beacon (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of West Witton.
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: SE05468674
Latitude 54.27628° Longitude -1.91764°

West Witton Penhill Beacon has been described as a Pele Tower but is rejected as such.

There are masonry footings remains.

Description

Mentioned by Leland as "the ruine of a castlet or pill in the toppe of an hill" Rejected by King as a probable beacon site.

Penhill Beacon, situated on the edge of Penhill Crags is a turf-covered flat topped mound, about 10.0m in diameter and 1.0m high. In the centre of the mound are traces of stone block walling approximately 5.0m square, which may have been the stone base for a beacon. The mound is covered in burnt debris from the 1977 Jubilee bonfire which supports the beacon tradition. (PastScape ref. Field Investigators Comments–F1 AGM 17-AUG-77)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 48644.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MYD4437.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Out of Oblivion
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 534 (reject)
  Page, Wm (ed), 1914, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 1 p. 287 online transcription
  Bogg, 1908, Richmondshire: an account of its history and antiquities (Elliot Stock) p. 640
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 570
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 134 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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