Crofton 'castelgate' (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Crofton.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Wakefield.
1974 county of West Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE377179
Latitude 53.65712° Longitude -1.43029°

Crofton 'castelgate' has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Crofton School, at SE377179, is on the site of Crofton Old Hall, which was a C18 building but, presumably the site of the medieval manorial centre.
The relevant entry in the Nostell Cartulary is dated as 'before 1264'. The 'gate' here is probably Danish gata meaning road and this grant of a roda in Castelgate mentioned would likely refer to a rod (16.5 feet) wide strip of land facing onto a road. The 'castel' of this road is, in the opinion of Gatehouse, likely to be the medieval manor house, probably not significantly fortified, but having the same administrative and legal function as most castles.
Not to be confused with Crofton Castle (aka Crofton Towers at SE388179), a C19 house demolished in 2004.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 52502.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) was W. Yorks. SMR Site File 4631.

Books
- Smith, A.H., 1961, Place Names of the West Riding: Part II, Osgoldcross and Asbrigg Wapentakes (London: Cambridge University Press: English Place-Name Society 31) p. 114
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Judith Anne Frost, 2005, An Edition of the Nostell Priory Cartulary London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian E XIX (University of York: PhD Thesis) Vol. 1 p. 366 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 763 online copy

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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.
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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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