Kimberworth Motte

Description

A motte and bailey at Kimberworth, identified by B.H. St. J. O'Neil, and scheduled as an ancient monument. A large, well-defined mound slightly "stepped" at the western end. The feature has not the appearance of a conventional motte & bailey, but is possibly the remains of a castle mound with an outer courtyard. (PastScape)

Kimberworth motte and bailey castle consists of an elliptical motte, orientated east-west and measuring c.40m x 15m, and a small section of bailey surviving to the south between the motte and the modern houses. Traces of the ditch surrounding the motte are also discernible to the north and west, but further remains of the bailey are now obscured by housing development. Situated on a natural rise above the River Rother, it was one of several in the region to command the Rother valley and may have dominated the manor of Kimberworth since before the Norman Conquest. After the Conquest, the manor was part of the Honour of Tickhill and held by Roger de Busli and his descendants until the mid or late thirteenth century. Some time prior to this, the site was abandoned in favour of the moated manor house, 250m downslope to the south, where an extensive complex of thirteenth century and later buildings have been recently excavated. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Surrounded by buildings and not accessible. There is no evidence of a bailey on site or on 1st edn. OS map but the mound top covers a good area.
The adjacent Rotherham suburb of Masbrough has a name meaning 'boundary fortress'. Sneyd suggests this may actually refer to an earlier 'fortress' on the site of Kimberworth, which does lie on the Roman Rig earthwork. Certainly it is entirely possible that there was an earlier fortification, of Saxon date, at Kimberworth even if Masbrough refers to something else (and it may well be a reference to the Roman Rig - which is a possibly a boundary marker - itself.).