Ryther Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hall Garth

In the civil parish of Ryther Cum Ossendyke.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of York.
1974 county of North Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE55313937
Latitude 53.84811° Longitude -1.16042°

Ryther Castle has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

The Ryther family castle, surrounded by its moat, stood to the west of the church (l'Anson). There is no surface indication of the hall. The moat survives as a dry hollow representing the SE angle of the former enclosure (Field Investigator, ECW, 01-MAY-1963). North enclosure of moat destroyed. Stone reported from this area. Modern house on south enclosure (le Patourel). A large quantity of foundation stone was discovered in a field known as Hall Garth in 1841 together with eleven human skeletons, of unknown date, laid in the form of a ring (Speight). OS 6" 1851 shows two arms of a rectangular moat surrounding the site of the hall, west of All Saints' Church. This site lies within a ploughed field with no earthworks or soil marks surviving. The moat immediately to the south has been infilled. The site is thus considered to be below the threshold for national importance. It is thus proposed that no further scheduling action is taken. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 56262.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Medieval Combat Society page on All Saints Church, Ryther
Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 532 (possible)
  Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p. 127
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Speight, Harry, 1902, Lower Wharfedale (London: Elliot Stock) p. 62- online copy
Periodical Articles
- l'Anson, W.M., 1923-4, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 27 p. 126

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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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