Wainfleet Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Wainfleet Castle Hill

In the civil parish of Wainfleet All Saints.
In the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Modern Authority of Lincolnshire.
1974 county of Lincolnshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TF497586
Latitude 53.10443° Longitude 0.23472°

Wainfleet Castle Hill has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

To Waynflete about a 5. miles. It hath beene a very godde toune, and yn it 2. paroche chirches. Shippeletes cam in hominum memoria up to the schole. The haven now decayith. Paynelle sayith that as rememberith there is a place caullid the Castell Hill at Wainflete. (Leland)

Leland reports being informed by Mr Paynell that there was a place called Castle Hill in Wainfleet. This does seem slight evidence but the significant coastal change, land reclaimation and intense agriculture in the area could have caused such a feature to be lost. Wainfleet was an important port in C14 but ruinous and deserted by the mid C15.
Map reference is for All Saints church, a C19 replacement of one of the medieval churches. The actually location of Mr Paynell's 'Castle Hill' is unknown and identification can only be speculative. Green Hill, at TF501593, is a mound in the grounds of lost Northolme Manor, a Tudor moated house. This is identified as any of several artificial mound types (Beacon; Windstead; Burial mound; gazebo mound) but not as a motte. However, if Northolme manor was a Tudor rebuild of an earlier medieval manor house (of the manor of Wainfleet St Thomas) is it possible this stood in the bailey of a motte and bailey castle?

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Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) " , "
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) "".

Books
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Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
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Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 300
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1909, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 4 p. 181 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
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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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This record last updated on Monday, July 29, 2013

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