Aspatria Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castlemont; Castlesteads; Hall Banks

In the civil parish of Aspatria.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY134415
Latitude 54.76132° Longitude -3.34339°

Aspatria Castle has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

No information can be obtained respecting this site, and there are no indications on the ground of any building having stood either here or in the immediate vicinity. Tradition states that Gospatric built a castle near Aspatria and the fact of the field being called 'Castlesteads' or 'Hillsteads' make it highly probable that the Castle stood here. (ONB Revn.1923 8)
NY135415. Aspatria Castle: The castle overlies an earlier settlement of possibly Iron Age/Romano-British date. (Higham and Jones)
A curvilinear enclosure of possible Prehistoric or Roman date was seen as a cropmark at NY 1346 4154 and mapped from air photographs. The enclosure has dimensions of 71 m by 44 m. (PastScape)

Comments

Reputed site of castle founded in C11 by Earl Gospatrick, based on a field name 'Castlesteads'. Labelled as 'Aspatria Castle Supposed Site of' on C19 OS maps. Alleged to overlie the possible site of an Iron Age and Romano British settlement site. There is no archaeological evidence to support these interpretations. Jackson writes 'Some vague earthworks.'
The location is a little outside the village but on the main road. There are suggestions in the field pattern that there is some village shrinkage on the west side, which would put the site in a feasible position for a manorial centre (with the church at the other end of the village). This is a site with some vague historical evidence, a local tradition and place-names, and a feasible location for a medieval manorial centre. However, there is no archaeological evidence of anything here, and, whilst the site has been ploughed, there is nothing to suggest intense agriculture or other activity and this site was without noticeable features before it was mapped in the 1880's. This suggests that even if this was the site of a C11 manor house this was not one fortified with significant earthwork ditches.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 9587.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 616.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 6
  Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 31
  Sanders, I.J., 1960, English Baronies. A study of their origin and descent 1086-1327 p. 134
Periodical Articles
- Higham, N., and Jones, G., 1975, 'Frontiers Forts and Farmers' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 132 p. 31

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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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