How Gill Earthwork (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY36054016
Latitude 54.75231° Longitude -2.99509°

How Gill Earthwork has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of possible ringwork destroyed after 1860. Possible precursor to Castle How. (Jackson)

How Hill, which we may reasonably infer to have given name to the township in which it is situated, possesses a few remains of "days long since departed." On its summit is a circular enclosure, mounded with stone and earth, about twenty-one yards in diameter, with an opening or entrance on the south side. Large oaks have grown through the mound. (Whellen)

A ring-mound, 21 yds. in diameter, at Howgill (TCWAAS 1923).
There are no surface indications of any earthwork here, the 25" published survey (revised) is of part of a natural hillock (F1 RE 03-NOV-70). (PastScape)

Comments

Isolated location by a farmstead. Nothing visible on the location given in PastScape and there may be some question as to the accuracy of this given location. There seems to be no reason to think that Castle How had a precursor. There may well have been some sort of defensive earthwork here of some, undetermined date, but it seems unlikely it was a castle. Equally the description in Whellan might just be that of a tree stand - a deliberated constructed mound, revetted with a wall, or bank and dry stone wall, designed to keep deer from grazing on the shoots of young oak trees.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 10543.
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.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 45
  Whellan, W., 1860, The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (Pontefract: W.Whellan and Co.) p. 520 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1923, 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Cumberland' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 23 p. 240 online copy

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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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