Sitlington Castle Gate placename (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Shitlington

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE284176
Latitude 53.65415° Longitude -1.57177°

Sitlington Castle Gate placename has been described as a Uncertain although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Field names containing elements implying the existence of a Medieval road and of an earthwork site of uncertain type and date in the area. The fields themselves do not appear to be topographically suitable for a castle. (West Yorkshire HER)

Possible Early Castle
Situation: The NGR denotes an area of gently sloping ground on the north side of the Calder Valley south of Horbury, in a zone disturbed by a railway cutting and the Horbury Junction Iron Works.
Preservation: There is no above-ground evidence for a former castle.
Description: Marginal evidence exists for an early castle site at Sitlington; the place names ‘Castle Yate Close’ and ‘Castle Gate’ are recorded in 1719, and the name ‘Castle Hill’ and ‘Castle Hill Farm’ are still to be found in the area. (Creighton 1998)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4632.

Books
- Smith, A.H., 1961, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Part 2 Osgoldcross and Agbrigg Wapentakes (English Place-Name Society 31) p. 209
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.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. 772 online copy
  Shitlington A (1719), field no. 18A; Shitlington B, field no. 18B
  Shitlington Tithe Award map, field no. 921

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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.

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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