Brierley Hallsteads (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hall Steads; Grimethorpe; Willow Garth; Brereley

In the civil parish of Brierley.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Barnsley.
1974 county of South Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE42080934
Latitude 53.57888° Longitude -1.36578°

Brierley Hallsteads has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Remains of medieval moated site, still visible as an earthwork. The hillside within the moat has been scarped to create a roughly circular inner enclosure. This once carried a stone wall, described as having been 4 or 5ft thick. A line of fishponds run eastwards from the northern arm of the moat. A manor house is known to have stood on this site, but no upstanding building remains survive. King rejects writing 'Tends to be accepted as M&B. In fact the site of manor house is a natural hillock with only slight signs of artificial earthworks'. This may be the site of the house for which a licence to crenellate was granted in 1479 (PastScape)

Hallsteads is an unusual site consisting of a flat-topped rise between two narrow valleys. A dam built to the west of the rise, across the confluence of the valleys, has created a moat to north and south while a bank and ditch encloses the site to the east. Within the enclosure, c.120m across, the hillside has been scarped to provide a roughly circular inner enclosure. In the past this carried a stone wall, the remains of which have been located during ploughing and stone from which litters the northern arm of the moat. Writing in 1831, Hunter states "there were lately those who remembered walls of four or five feet in height, and as much in thickness" indicating that a substantial stone-built building once inhabited the summit. In addition, running eastward off the north arm of the moat for c.150m is a line of three or four linear fishponds, divided by dams and created by embanking the natural stream line. (Scheduling Report)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1479 May 26 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1012457, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13233
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 54067.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00291/01.

Books
- Hey, David, 2003, Medieval South Yorkshire (Landmark Publishing) p. 80
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 422
  Sneyd, Steve, 1995, The Devil's Logbook Castles and Fortified Sites around South Yorkshire (Hilltop Press) p. 11
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 533 (reject as motte and bailey)
  Watson, M.R. and Harrison, M., 1976, Brereley A History of Brierley p. 2-5 view online edition
  Hunter, J., 1828, South Yorkshire. The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster in the Diocese and County of York Vol. 1 p. 435
Periodical Articles
- Birch, J., 1981, 'The castles and fortified houses of South Yorkshire' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 137 p. 374-6
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1901, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III (1476-85) p. 151 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. 724 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.

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