Yafforth Howe Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Jaford; Iaford

In the civil parish of Yafforth.
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: SE34669501
Latitude 54.34946° Longitude -1.46827°

Yafforth Howe Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The remains of a motte castle known as Howe Hill, located in low lying land in the flood plain of the River Wiske. The motte is an artificial mound built on the top of a natural rounded knoll. It is a flat topped mound 65m in diameter at the base and 25m across on the top. It stands 4.5m high above the top of the knoll. The base of the motte is surrounded by a ditch with an outer counterscarp bank. The ditch is partly infilled in places, leaving a level terrace, although elsewhere, particularly around the south east side, both the ditch and the counterscarp bank survive as earthworks. There are traces of an entranceway through the bank and ditch at the north side. Originally there would have been a timber structure on the top of the motte and a further timber pallisade fence protecting the outer bank. Access to the motte would be via a timber superstructure leading from a strongly built gatehouse. The motte was probably built during the reign of King Stephen between 1135 and 1154. During this period there was political unrest throughout England and forts capable of garrisoning a small force of troops were established to maintain order. This motte commanded the crossing of the River Wiske by the old High Road from Northallerton to Catterick and Richmond. It was probably suppressed by Henry II during the late 12th century. (Scheduling Report)

A natural hillock formed into a motte some 75' diameter at the top. The motte rose some 16' above the ditch which encircled it, and part of the counterscarp bank of which still remains on the north and south sides. Probably erected during the reign of Stephen, 1135-1154. There was no bailey. (PastScape ref. l'Anson, 1913)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1016266, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 29527
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 53945.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY12821.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
Books
- Turner, Maurice, 2004, Yorkshire Castles: Exploring Historic Yorkshire (Otley: Westbury Publishing) p. 250
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 114
  Jackson, M.J., 2001, Castles of North Yorkshire (Carlisle) p. 54
  Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 24
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 301 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 528
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 351
  Page, Wm (ed), 1914, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 1 p. 172, 174 online transcription
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 23
Periodical Articles
- Butler, Lawrence, 1994, 'The Origins of the Honour of Richmond and its Castles' Château Gaillard Vol. 16 p. 69-80 (Reprinted in Liddiard, Robert, (ed), 2003, Anglo-Norman Castles p. 91-103 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press))
  I'Anson, W.M., 1913, 'The castles of the North Riding' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 22 p. 398-9 (plan)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Brown, Wm, 1890-1, 'Pedes Finium Ebor.' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 11 p. 184 no. XIX (mention in feet of fines of 1197-8) online copy
  1898, (reprinted 1929), Feet of Fines of the ninth year of the reign of King Richard I, A.D. 1197 to A.D. 1198 (Pipe Roll Society Publications 23) p. 126-7 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. 633 online copy

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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.
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.

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