Mexborough Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SK484999
Latitude 53.49358° Longitude -1.27087°

Mexborough Castle Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

a circular bailey, c.25m in diameter, with a peripheral motte, c.8m high and c.5m across at the top. The bailey is surrounded by substantial banks rising c.2m above the present inner ground level and c.5m above the outer ditch. Entrance to the bailey is via a defensive approach on the north west side that survives as an earthwork between the bailey rampart and the motte. A similar but smaller feature can be seen on the south side. Situated on the north bank of the River Don, the site commands the ancient ford at Strafforth Sands. In the 11th century it was a manor of Roger de Busli, lord of Tickhill. Writing in the 17th century, Dodsworth mentions "Mexborough, where hath once been a castle", suggesting the stone visible in the top of the motte is part of the foundations of a stone tower. (Scheduling Report)

Medieval motte and bailey castle, damaged by landscape gardening. The truncated motte is 52 feet high above the ditch and the bailey is surrounded by a bank 6 feet in height. The ditch surrounding the motte and bailey is 50 feet wide. Although mutilated most of these features were present during field investigation in 1965 and are visible as earthworks on air photographs. (PastScape)

The modern town of Mexborough gives little hint of the medieval layout. The modern road (A6023) runs on the ridge to the north of the castle but the old road ran in the valley to the south and below the castle. The parish church, now well east from the modern town centre was actual at the west end of the medieval village with the castle at the east end. A footbridge across the river Don marks the approximate site of a ford/ferry crossing. The castle is not on the highest land (The adjacent primary school is on higher land) but on the false crest of river escarpment making the site visible from the old road and the River Don coming from Conisborough. However, the castle is not well visible nor has particularly good views of the land to the north or the river to the west.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument number 1013650, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13210
English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 316463.
County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00122/01.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  http://www.joseflocke.co.uk/heritage/newsletters/2004_april.htm
Books
- Hey, David, 2003, Medieval South Yorkshire (Landmark Publishing) p. 28, 73
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 60
  Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 20
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 310 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 521
  Magilton, J.R., 1977, The Doncaster District: An Archaeological Survey (Doncaster) p. 57-8
  Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield)
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 31, 33
  Allcroft, A. Hadrian, 1908, Earthwork of England (London) p. 406, 408 online copy
  Armitage, Ella S., 1905, A key to English antiquites with special reference to the Sheffield and Rotherham district (London: J.M. Dent and Co) p. 56 online copy
  Hunter, J., 1831, South Yorkshire. The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster in the Diocese and County of York Vol. 2 p. 263
  Hunter, J., 1828, South Yorkshire. The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster in the Diocese and County of York Vol. 1 p. iv
Periodical Articles
- Birch, J., 1981, 'The castles and fortified houses of South Yorkshire' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 137 p. 374-6
  Addy, S.O., 1914-18, 'Some Defensive Earthworks in the neighbourhood of Sheffield' Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society Vol. 1 p. 359-61 and plate
  Chalkley Gould, I., 1904, 'Some early defensive earthworks of the Sheffield district' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 10 p. 29-42 esp. 38-9 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 215 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1874, The Builder Vol. 32 p. 585-7
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Roger Dodsworth (d. 1654) 162 vols of manuscripts held in the Bodleian Library Oxford
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses Online

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	OS getamap	Streetmap	Old-Maps	Where's the path
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	EarthTools
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