Torside Castle, Charlesworth (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Harrop Moss; Glossop

In the civil parish of Charlesworth.
In the historic county of Derbyshire.
Modern Authority of Derbyshire.
1974 county of Derbyshire.
Medieval County of Derbyshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK07659655
Latitude 53.46560° Longitude -1.88606°

Torside Castle, Charlesworth has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Mound, 265ft by 160ft, which was thought to be a possible castle, but is now believed to be a natural mound. (PastScape)

Torside Castle on Harrop Moor, has a pear-shaped area of about 3/4 acre enclosed by a single bank, but seemingly without a ditch, which would remove it from the hill-fort class. Noted under 'simple enclosure camps'. Scheduled - (under 'camps & settlements'). (Preston; Cox).
This is a natural peat table situated approximately 1600ft. above sea level. There is no evidence of artificial scarping and no surface finds were made. It is surrounded by deep water gullies.
Formerly scheduled monument (DR10) descheduled under MPP (Mon. No. 90873) on 9/11/93.
No obvious signs of human activity - similar to Glossop Low to NW.
Geologically sits on marine bands shale/clay over Kinderscout Grit. (Derbyshire HER)

Comments

Very isolated site of no apparent strategic importance, seems mainly to have been considered an IA hillfort and was once scheduled but descheduled in 1993 - The isolated spot is unlikely to be developed and the main effect of descheduling will be to spare a field archaeologist a long walk to do a site inspection. Presumably this is a glacial feature. The sparse surrounding moorland heather vegetation and the somewhat richer grass on the thicker soil of mound makes this feature particularly prominent on the air photo.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 306321.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3619.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Torside Castle & Torside Clough YouTube video
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 29 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 110 (possible)
  Cox, J.C., 1905, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Derbyshire Vol. 1 p. 370-1 (plan) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hodges, R., 1980, 'Excavations at Camp Green, Hathersage (1976-77) - a Norman ringwork' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 100 p. 32 online copy
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Preston, F.L., 1954, 'Hillforts of the Peak' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 74 p. 15 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. 336-7 online copy

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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.

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Data >	PastScape	County HER	Descheduled
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