Kendal Vicarage Drive mound (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Kirkbarrow

In the civil parish of Kendal.
In the historic county of Westmorland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Westmorland.

OS Map Grid Reference: SD51279163
Latitude 54.31793° Longitude -2.75052°

Kendal Vicarage Drive mound has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Cumbria SMR record of medieval motte.

I would say, that of the two Vicarage Drive mounds, this would be the most likely to represent any form of motte and bailey castle or 'pre-conquest administrative centre'.....though again, early maps show nothing of any note in this area, and local historical documents don't mention anything at this end of town. I would have thought, that had there been an important site here, perhaps John Speed would have noted it on his map of 1620, but there is nothing here at all. Both of these mounds are intriguing sites...but it is hard to find any persuasive argument for these mounds being anything other than glacial mounds. (Matthew Emmott)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2072.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog and Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog

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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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