Gisborough Priors House

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Giseburghe; Guisborough

In the civil parish of Guisborough.
In the historic county of Yorkshire North Riding (Modern Authority of Redcar & Cleveland, 1974 county of Cleveland).

Priors house granted licence to crenellate in 1344. Jackson writes house - may have stood in a field known as "Wars Field" situated "close to the lane going from Church Street to Redcar". Together with an adjoining field, Wars Field contained "Part of a moat - with elevated ridges and uneven surfaces, occupying several acres. King writes Guisborough is persistantly credited with a castle on no evidence at all. L'Anson gave some tenurial evidence for an early C11 castle here but with no trace of remains. What were the earthworks in War Field?

This site has been described as a;
Fortified Manor House.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ613163

Books

Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern) p40
Jackson, M.J., 1996, Castles of Durham and Cleveland (Carlise) p32-33
Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses Vol1 (Cambridge) p319
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p533 [reject]
Page, Wm (ed), 1923, VCH Yorkshire North Riding Vol2 p352-3
Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
Whellan, T., 1857, History and topography of the city of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire (T Whellan and Co) Vol191-3
Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol3 pt2 p414

Journal Articles

Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation: An Essay in the Sociology and Metaphysics of Medieval Fortification' Medieval Archaeology Vol26 p94
I'Anson, W.M., 1913, 'The castles of the North Riding' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol22 p351-2

Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)

Calendar of Patent Rolls (1343-45) p316

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Gisborough Priors House

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ613163

Sources of information, references and further reading