Carlecotes Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Carlecotes.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Barnsley.
1974 county of South Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE179029
Latitude 53.52295° Longitude -1.73199°

Carlecotes Castle Hill has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

SE of village, a prominent small hill rises from the slope descending towards the R. Don. It's dominating position is well seen from the walkway along the former Woodhead railline E. of Dunford Bridge. The hillock, a promontory with summit near SW termination, bears faint indications of possible banking, below summit, and the summit area could have been scarped and bears a circular depression. (Sneyd 1995)

At Carlecoates, two miles below Don-ford Bridge, the river is overlooked by a somewhat singular eminence called the "Castle Hill," which, surmounted by a solitary tree, is a striking object for several miles lower down. (Holland 1837)

Comments

Not in the archaeological databases. Despite Sneyd slight suggestion of some artificial scarping appears to be an entirely natural hill. The slight depression reported by Sneyd in the hill summit may be a tree throw from the large tree reported by Holland in 1837 although this does seem to have gone by the time of the 1st edn 6" OS map (1906). The origin of the name is obscure but may be the sort of hill where children and youths played 'king of the castle' at a time when this upland valley had a greater population, alternatively it may have been a location for local meetings and, therefore, had a local political function similar to actual castles.
There is, apparently, a local story this was a folly built for Carlecoates Hall by the workers building the railway. It is certainly in a location where it could have been a folly for Carlecotes Hall, but the railway was built mid C19, after Holland described it as Castle Hill (with a large tree on it) so this local story may be erroneous.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Sneyd, Steve, 1995, The Devil's Logbook Castles and Fortified Sites around South Yorkshire (Hilltop Press) p. 9
  Anon (chiefly by J. Holland), 1837, The Tour of the Don, A Series of Extempore Sketches (London) Vol. 1 p. 54, 55 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dr David Mercer,June 2016, pers. corr.

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio