Birdsedge Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castle Hill, Denby Common

In the civil parish of Denby Dale.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Kirklees.
1974 county of West Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire West Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE20410696
Latitude 53.55893° Longitude -1.69328°

Birdsedge Castle Hill has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The clear remains of defensive banking survive on W. and S.W. side of a roughly oval enclosure ploughed out to N and E and quarried away to S. "Undatable" (WYAAS), though British remains found nearby. Patch suggest use (reuse if orig. IA) as D'day 'vaccaria' or 'cattle camp' of Denby, i.e. a protective stock enclosure. Both 1st OS and Morehouse (KB, P4) plan indicate largish oval feature, now lost, at NW corner of, but slightly separate from, enclosure, just possibly a ringwork. 1st OS also locates the name Castle Hill a little further N. on higher ground N. of Windmill Lane around, SE201072, where the late J Hurst recalled other earthworks now quarried away, an inner bank near highest point and encircling outer bank on lower slope. (Sneyd 1995)

The late prehistoric enclosed settlement on Castle Hill survives well and contributes to the body of knowledge relating to late prehistoric settlement and land use in northern England.
The monument includes a late prehistoric enclosed settlement, situated on Denby Common, on the south side of Windmill Lane, at the south edge of a plateau. The enclosure survives as an upstanding earthwork on the south west and west sides. On the south west side this takes the form of a substantial bank, following the top of the natural scarp. Because of this scarp, the bank is about 0.6m high on its north east side, but has a drop of approximately 4m on its south west side. There are several small quarry holes at the base of this slope, which obscure any evidence for a ditch. The west side of the enclosure is formed by a bank approximately 10m wide and 0.3m high, with an external ditch about 5m wide and up to 0.3m deep. The upstanding remains of the rest of the enclosure have been flattened by ploughing in the past, but the edges of the enclosure are just traceable as a slight break of slope on the north side and a very faint bank on the east side. The south side of the enclosure is marked by the edge of the scarp. During fieldwalking in the 1970s approximately 90 Neolithic flints were found. This suggests that the site may have earlier prehistoric antecedents. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1018554, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 31503
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 51020.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 10.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- The Shepley Hub
Books
- Sneyd, Steve, 1995, The Devil's Logbook Castles and Fortified Sites around South Yorkshire (Hilltop Press) p. 6
  Faull, M.L. and Moorhouse, S.A., 1981, West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey to AD1500 (Wakefield)
  Page, Wm (ed), 1912, VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 7
  Morehouse, H.J., 1861, History of the Parish of Kirkburton and the Graveship of Holme p. 4
Periodical Articles
- Preston, F.L., 1954, 'Hill Forts of the Peak' Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. 74 p. 15 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.
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