Low Coppice Fort (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Tilberthwaite; Tillesbure; Tillesburc

In the civil parish of Coniston.
In the historic county of Lancashire.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Lancashire North of the Sands.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY30810105
Latitude 54.40020° Longitude -3.06727°

Low Coppice Fort has been described as a Uncertain although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Natural fort or refuge of possible C12 date. The feature is a natural stronghold and was probably used as a place of refuge and could conceivably be of any date. Excavations here in 1922 revealed dwelling sites at Low Coppice, Tilberthwaite, suggestive of a temporary occupation site. (PastScape)

Occupation floors recorded at Tilberthwaite on a site which is inferred to have been a hillfort, possibly of C12 origin-the name "Tillesburc" occurs in a document of 1157-63. The site is naturally defensible and needs no ramparts to make it a stronghold. Several of the rock hollows were excavated and found to contain a 2 in thick stratum of disturbed whitish grey sandy clay in which there are small flakes of stone and fragments of charcoal. This level underlies 8 in of black vegetable soil and overlies 4 in of dark grey sandy clay. No pottery or relics were found. According to OS the remains resemble earlier hut floors of the Mardale Castle Crag and possibly the Cater rock-huts of Peel Island. (Lake District HER)

Comments

This seems an odd record from the PastScape (presumably based on Collingwood) and no other authority has mentioned such a site. This is not an area much affected by Scottish raids. The C12 reference is in a royal confirmation of a boundary division and merely shows there was a notable feature here at that time; Indeed it seems more likely this boundary feature was old at that time. A medieval date for the occupation evidence found at the site seems unlikely with pre-historic seemingly more probable. However a raid of any date may have resulted in the local population taking to the hills generally and this site may well have been such a refuge.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 10287.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1871.

Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1923, 'Tillesburc' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 23 p. 138-41 online copy
  1923, Report of Congress of Archaeological Societies p. 38
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Farrer, W., 1902, 'The Lancashire Chartulary' in Lancashire Pipe Rolls and early Lancashire Charters p. 310-14 online copy

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 >	PastScape	County HER
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