Pennington Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Description

Earthwork remains of a Medieval ringwork, comprising a rampart and outer ditch on the slopes of Pennington Beck. The defended quadrant-shaped enclosure measures 156ft by 132ft. (PastScape)

Pennington Castle Hill is an interesting little earthwork about two miles west of Ulverston, and situated just about the place where the Fumess Fells drop down to meet Low or Plain Furness. It is therefore fairly close to the ancient road which came oversands from Cartmel to Sandside, and crossed through Low Fumess into South Cumberland. The situation is rather striking, being on the edge of Pennington Beck, which here runs in a deep ravine; and the makers of the Castle Hill have chosen a sharp elbow of cliff on the east bank, isolating it for defensive purposes by a semi-circular ditch and rampart, which thus took in a quadrant shaped area. The ward thus formed measures 156 feet by 132 feet, and the ditch is about 45 feet wide measured from the rampart top to the outer edge. As the site slopes to the south, and the ditch is about the same depth all round, its level at the south is lower than at the north, and it has, of course, never been meant to hold water. The rampart on the north is now perhaps twelve feet above the ward level, and there is only one entrance through it, that on the south-east, which is probably ancient. (Cowper 1906)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1007127, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number cu362
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 37766.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2215.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Grimsditch, Brian, Nevell, Michael and Nevell, Richard, 2012, Buckton Castle and the Castles of the North West England (University of Salford Archaeological Monograph 2) p. 112
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 388
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99 (slight)
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 274 (slight)
  Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 79
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 246
  Gibson, Leslie Irving, 1977, Lancashire Castles and Towers (Dalesman Books)
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 37, 308
  Farrer, Wm and Brownbill, J.(eds), 1914, VCH Lancashire Vol. 8 p. 338-42 (manorial history) online copy
  Cowper, H. Swainton, 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks:- Lancashire North of the Sands' in Farrer, William and Brownbill, J. (eds), VCH Lancashire Vol. 2 p. 555-6 (plan) online copy
  Barber, H., 1894, Furness and Cartmel Notes p. 224
  Baines, E., 1836, History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster (London: Fisher, Son, and Jackson) Vol. 4 p. 669
  Whitaker, T.D., 1823, History of Richmondshire (London) Vol. 2 p. 404 online copy
  West, T., 1805, Antiquites of Furness (Ulverston) p. 407-9 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Higham, Mary, 1991, 'The Mottes of North Lancashire, Lonsdale and South Cumbria' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 91 p. 79-90 (reprinted in Crosby, A.G. (ed), 2007, Of names and places: selected writings of Mary Higham (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society and the Society for Name Studies) p. 81-91) online copy
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Forde-Johnston, J., 1962, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Vol. 72 p. 12
  1941 Proceedings of the Barrow Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 27 p. 64
  Collingwood, W.G., 1926, 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Westmorland and Lancashire North-of-the-Sands' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 26 p. 50 online copy
  Cowper, H. Swainson, 1906, 'Pennington Castle Hill' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 6 p. 316-17 online copy
  Cowper, H. Swainson, 1893, 'The ancient settlements, cemeteries, and earthworks of Furness' Archaeologia Vol. 53 p. 424-6
  Cowper, H. Swainson, 1887-8, 'Some Prehistoric Remains in North Lonsdale' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 9 p. 503 (Find of 'celt' (a prehistoric stone adze)) online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk North West Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 32 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk North West Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 35 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 38 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 40 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 51 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 48 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 45 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 North West (London: English Heritage) p. 52 online copy
  Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses Online

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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.

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