Barwick in Elmet, Hall Tower Hill

In the civil parish of Barwick In Elmet And Scholes.
In the historic county of Yorkshire West Riding (Modern Authority of Leeds, 1974 county of West Yorkshire).

Motte and bailey castle was built at the southern end of Iron Age univallate hillfort and comprised the motte, which stands c.15m high and is surrounded by a deep ditch c.15m wide, and the bailey which extended to the north and east. The east side of the bailey, which originally extended beyond the limits of the earlier hillfort, has largely been built over by urban development within Barwick in Elmet, but sufficient remains to contain ample buried evidence of the domestic and garrison buildings that formerly occupied it. When the motte was built it would have been crowned by a timber tower and palisade, but there is as yet no evidence that this was ever replaced in stone. The castle was built by the de Lacy family, who held the Honour of Pontefract throughout most of the Middle Ages, and was the administrative centre of the northern part of the Honour; a role it took over from the ringwork castle at Kippax

This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Earthworks remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SE39893769

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 52862

• Web site links
  • http://members.lycos.co.uk/BarwickHistorical/4468.htm
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern) p19
    Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p16-17
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p310 [slight]
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p513
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p184
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield) p124-5
    Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol2 p26-7
    Whitaker, T.D., 1816, Loidis and Elmete (Leeds) p152-3
• Journal Articles
  • Clark, G.T., 1874, The Builder Vol32 p586
    Colman, 1908, 'History of Barwick in Elmet' Thoresby Society Vol17 p19-24