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Pickering Castle
In the civil parish of Pickering.
In the historic county of Yorkshire North Riding (Modern Authority of North Yorkshire, 1974 county of North Yorkshire).
The remains of an C11 motte and bailey castle and a C13 shell keep castle. The former was built by William the Conqueror either during or shortly after the 'harrying of the north' in 1069-70. It consisted of an earth motte crowned by a timber palisade, flanked on the north-west side by a crescent-shaped inner bailey and, on the south-east side, by a contemporary or slightly later outer bailey. The motte is circa 20m high and has a base diameter of circa 60m. It is not yet clear whether this is the original C11 motte or a later medieval reconstruction. In the latter case, the earlier motte will have been preserved inside the later. The reconstruction of the castle in stone largely took place between 1180 and 1236. There were three main phases of work at this time, the earliest involving the late C12 replacement of the inner bailey palisade with a curtain wall and the construction of the first shell keep. In its present form the shell keep dates to the early C13 but the foundations of the earlier keep will survive underneath. The remains of the early curtain wall still round the inner bailey. The earliest buildings so far identified are the early or mid-C12 Old Hall, whose surviving foundations show it to be half-timbered, and the Coleman Tower which guarded the entry across the inner bailey and was also used as a prison. The complete, but largely altered chantry chapel dates from circa 1227 whilst to the west of this is the early C14 New Hall. The last major programme of building dates to 1324-26 when Edward II ordered extensive works to be carried out which included replacing the whole of the timber palisade round the outer bailey with a stone wall. The outer curtain included three projecting towers, a gatehouse and a postern gate. The three towers, named from north-east to south-west, Rosamund's Tower, Diate Hill Tower and Milk Tower, the latter built as a prison.
This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle
Masonry Castle.
The confidence
that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.
This site is a scheduled
monument protected by law.
This site is a
Listed but grading unknown listed
building protected by law*. (Images
of England number )
The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SE79878452
PastScape number;
60349
- Web site links
- Books
- Jackson, M.J., 2001, Castles of North Yorkshire (Carlise) p56-9 [plan]
Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern) p68-71
Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p56-7
Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p294-5
Furtado, Peter et al (eds), 1988, Ordnance Survey guide to castles in Britain (London) p196
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p522
Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p276
Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1975, The history of the King's Works Vol3: 1485-1660 (part 1) (London) p286-7, 405
Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker) p277, 279-80
Garlick, Tom, 1972, Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p21-2
Pevsner, N., 1966. The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, North Riding (London) p284-5
Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p779-81
Toy, Sidney, 1953, The Castles of Great Britain (Heinemann) p203
Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield) p71-5
Page, Wm (ed), 1923, VCH York, North Riding Vol2 p463-7
Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol2 p35-6
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p239-40
Clark, G.T., 1884, Medieval Military Architecture in England (Wyman and Sons) Vol2 p368-75
Whellan T, 1859, History and Topography of the City of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire Vol225-9
Grainge, W., 1855, Castles and Abbeys of Yorkshire p272-9
Young, G., 1817, History of Whitby and the Vicinity Vol2 p732-6
Grose, F., 1756, Antiquities of England and Wales Vol6 p143-5
- Journal Articles
- (Thompson), 1962-3, Medieval Archaeology Vol6-7 p324
Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p249-280]
Brown, R. Allen, 1955, 'Royal Castle-building in England 1154-1216' English Historical Review Vol70 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press)] pp19-64
1943, Archaeological Journal Vol91 p392-4
I'Anson, W.M., 1913, 'The castles of the North Riding' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol22 p369-71 [plan]
Clark, G.T., 1873, Archaeological Journal Vol30 p349-57 [reprinted in MMA]
- Guidebooks
- Butler, L., 1993. Pickering Castle (English Heritage)
Thompson, M.W., 1985, Pickering Castle, North Yorkshire. (English Heritage)
Thompson, M.W., 1958, Pickering Castle, Yorkshire. (HMSO)
Fox, 1936, (Whitby)
- Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
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*The listed building
may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site
of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
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