Doncaster Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE57430353
Latitude 53.52578° Longitude -1.13510°

Doncaster Castle has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Nothing can now be seen of the castle although the former motte has been located under the eastern end of St George's church. it has been shown that the surrounding ditch was 16 feet deep and 30 feet wide. (Hey, 1979) Castle mound stood in north east corner of Roman fort, under east end of present parish church. Angled stretch of churchyard perimeter immediately south of the east end perpetuated line of inner bailey ditch. Outer bailey ditch also located. Motte and ditch had been levelled by C.1200 (Moot Hall (PIN 784) built over ditch) (South Yorkshire SMR)

Doncaster Castle. Excavations in the early 1970s uncovered the remains of two baileys, either an inner and outer or a ringwork with a later bailey. There is no archaeological evidence for a motte, only a bibliographic reference in Camden. It was probably built before 1068 and may have been destroyed on the orders of Henry II at the end of the civil war. (PastScape ref. Buckland and Dolby, 1972)

Motte and bailey or ringwork and bailey was revealed by excavation in the early 1970's, probably built by 1068 and destroyed in Henry II's reign. the faire and large parish church of St George, standing in the very area where once the castle of the town stood long since clean decayed. The dykes partly yet be seen and the foundations of parts of the walls. (Leland)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004797, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number sy1216
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 55892.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00456/01.

Books
- Barber, B., 2007, A History of Doncaster (The History Press)
  Turner, Maurice, 2004, Yorkshire Castles: Exploring Historic Yorkshire (Otley: Westbury Publishing) passim
  Hey, David, 2003, Medieval South Yorkshire (Landmark Publishing) p. 74
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 36
  Sneyd, Steve, 1995, The Devil's Logbook Castles and Fortified Sites around South Yorkshire (Hilltop Press) p. 10
  Buckland, P.C., Magilton, J.R. and Hayfield, C., 1989, The Archaeology of Doncaster, The Medieval and Later Town (British Archaeological Reports: British series 202) p. 86-100
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 530
  Hey, D., 1979, The Making of South Yorkshire (Ashbourne: Moorland) p. 52
  Magilton, J.R., 1977, The Doncaster District: An Archaeological Survey (Doncaster) p. 32-36
  Hunter, J., 1828, South Yorkshire: the History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster (London) Vol. 1 p. 11
  Wainwright, 1826, Strafford and Tickhill (Sheffield) p. 67-8
Periodical Articles
- Speight, Sarah, 2008, 'Castles as Past Culture: Living with Castles in the Post-Medieval World' Château Gaillard Vol. 23 p. 385-94 (slight)
  1987, 'The Yorkshire Archaeological Register: 1986' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 59 p. 197
  Birch, J., 1981, 'The castles and fortified houses of South Yorkshire' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 137 p. 374-6
  1973, 'The Yorkshire Archaeological Register: 1972' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 45 p. 204
  1972, 'The Yorkshire Archaeological Register: 1971' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 44 p. 219
  Buckland, P. and Dolby, M., 1972, 'Doncaster' Current Archaeology Vol. 33 p. 273-7
  1971, Medieval Archaeology Vol. 15 p. 135-6 download copy
  Whiting, C.S., 1945, Dalesman Vol. 6 p. 184
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 524
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 34 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. 195, 197-8, 726 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	Scheduling
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