Castle Hill

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1004591
Date first listed:: 17-Mar-1966

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1004591
Date first listed:: 17-Mar-1966

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cumberland (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Hayton
National Grid Reference:: NY 50687 57839

Summary

Castle Hill.

Reasons for Designation

Ringworks are medieval fortifications built and occupied from the late Anglo-Saxon period to the later 12th century. They comprised a small defended area containing buildings which was surrounded or partly surrounded by a substantial ditch and a bank surmounted by a timber palisade or, rarely, a stone wall. Occasionally a more lightly defended embanked enclosure, the bailey, adjoined the ringwork. Ringworks acted as strongholds for military operations and in some cases as defended aristocratic or manorial settlements. They are rare nationally with only 200 recorded examples and less than 60 with baileys. As such, and as one of a limited number and very restricted range of Anglo-Saxon and Norman fortifications, ringworks are of particular significance to our understanding of the period.

Castle Hill is reasonably well-preserved as an earthwork and is representative of its period. The monument will contain archaeological deposits relating to its construction, use and abandonment and environmental deposits relating to the use of the surrounding landscape. The monument provides insight into the character of fortification during the earlier medieval period.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 24 March 2016.This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes the remains of a ringwork of medieval date, situated on a broad ridge. The monument has been created by scarping of a slight natural hillock to both enhance the mound and to create the ringwork or circular bank with a dished interior.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: CU 347
Legacy System:: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape Monument No:- 12526

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.